
Class F V hZ 
Ronk - W^^. 



/ 



DESCRIPTION 






LOUISIANA, 



Hv FATIlKIl LOUIS HKNNKIMN, 



RECOLLECT MISSIONARY. 



IMANSlAIKIi KKOM IIIK IDiriON 0» iTjX], AND COMI'Alltl) WITH THE NOUVtl.I.I 
DicOIIVtUTE, THE LA «AI.I.K IIOCUMENflJ ANIJ OTHEK 
CONTEMPOHANEOUli PAI'KUS. 



By JOHN OILMARY SriEA. . 




NEW YORK 

O H N G. SHEA. 
1880. 



COPYRIGHT iSSo, 



JOHN GILMARY CHEA. 



f^^ 



,"^L 



.H 



^4 



Rt. Rev. JOHN IRELAND, D.D., 



J. FLETCHER WILLIAMS, 



ruEsniEN r anp secretary of the Minnesota historical gociety, 
t;ii3 workdje to their friendly compulsion is now dedicated. 



PREFACE. 



The work of Father Louis Hennepin here 
given is the most graphic account of La Salle's 
course of exploration as far as Illinois, and the 
only detailed narrative of Hennepin's own voyage 
up the Mississippi to the Sioux country during 
which he visited and named the Falls of Saint 
Anthony. 

Doubts thrown upon Hennepin by the evident 
falsity of a later work bearing his name, have led 
to a general charge of falsehood against him. In 
justice to him, it must be admitted that there are 
grounds for believing that his notes were adapted 
by an unscrupulous editor, and the second book 
altered even after it was printed. 

His original work hsre given in full for the first 
time in English, is supported to a remarkable degree 
by all contemporary authorities, by topography 
and Indian life. The charge made by Margry 
that it is a plagiarism is utterly absurd. 



6 Pi^EFACE. 

To bring together in English matter scattered 
in various volumes bearing on the questions in 
regard to Hennepin, I have added the account 
of the pretended voyage down the Mississippi in 
the Nouvelle Decouverte ; an account of Henne- 
pin's capture from the Margry documents ; the 
account given by La Salle in his letter of August 
22, 1682 ; the account given in the work ascribed 
to Tonty, and lastly the Report of Du Lhut to the 
Marquis de Seignelay of his visit to the Sioux 
country in v^hich he relieved or rescued Hennepin. 

I must express my thanks for valuable aid re- 
ceived from Mr. H. A. Homes, George H. 
Moore, LL.D., and Gen. J. Watts de Peyster. 
JOHN GILMARY SHEA. 

Elizabeth, June 12, 1880. 



CONTENTS- 



Notice on Father Louis Hennepin, g 

On the authenticity of Father Hennepin's works, 31 

Hennepin's Description of Louisiana 41 

Dedication to Louis XIV, 4-1 

Royal Privilege, 48 

La Salle's Earlier Explorations, 51 

Obtains grant of Fort Frontenac, 52 

Prepares for his Western Exploration, 64 

Sends men to Niagara, 65 

The Great Lakes — The Falls of Niagara, , 6g 

Begins fort and builds the Griffin, , 73 

La Motte and Hennepin visit the Senecas, 74 

Loss of La Salle's bark, 81 

Launching of the Griffin, 85 

She sails for the West, go 

At Lake St. Clare, 92 

At Missilimakinac, 97 

At Green Bay, 104 

Sails back, 106 

La Salle proceeds in canoes, 108 

Trouble with Outagamis, 120 

At the mouth of the river of the Miamis, 129 

Builds a fort, i^i 

Joined by Tonty, i^-? 

Ascends the river, 135 

Makes the portage to the Seignelay (Illinois), 140 

Reaches Illinois village, 152 

Reaches Illinois camp, 156 

Begins Fort Crevecoeur and vessel, 175 

Sets out to learn fate of the Griffin, 188 

Hennepin and Accault set out, ..« 192 



8 



CONTENTS. 



Reach the Mississippi, 104 

Account of the upper Mississippi, 196 

Capture by Sioux, 205 

Reaches and names Falls of St. Antnony, 220 

Found by Du Lhut, 253 

Return by way of the Wisconsin, 256 

At Michilimakinac, 259 

Returns to Quebec and France, 264 

Latest intelligence of La Salle, 271 

The Manners of the Indians, 273 

Approbatory of the "Description of Louisiana," pub- 
lished on the " Nouveau Voyage," Utrecht, 1698,... 340 
Account of a voyage down the Mississippi, from the 

Nouvelle Decouverte, 343 

Account of Hennepin's capture, from the Margry papers, 360 
Account of Hennepin's canoe exploration in La Salle's 

Letter of August 22, 168^, 361 

Account of Hennepin's expedition in the work pub- 
lished in 1697, as by the Chevalier Tonty, 372 

Du Lhut's Report to Monseigneur the Marquis de 

Seignelay, 374 

Description of Niagara Falls, from the Nouvelle De- 
couverte, 377 

Bibliography of Hennepin, 382 

Index, 393 



NOTICE OF 
FATHER LOUIS HENNEPIN, 

Recollect Missionary. 



Father Louis Hennepin was the first popular 
writer on the French in America. Champlain, 
Lescarbot, the Jesuits in their Relations had 
written indeed but their works found no currency 
beyond France. Hennepin's works caught the 
general fancy and were translated into almost 
all the languages of Europe. But for him the 
story of La Salle would scarcely have been known 
even in France. 

Of his early life he gives us little information. 
He was born at Ath in Hainaut, as he assures us, 
although Margry on the faith of documents, says 
that he was really born at Roy, of a family which 
came from Ath. 

While still pursuing his studies he felt " a strong 

inclination to leave the world and to live in the 

2 



to SKETCH OP 

rule of pure strict virtue. With this view," says 
he, " I entered the order of Saint Francis, in order 
to spend my days there in a life of austerity. I 
accordingly took the habit with several of my 
fellow students, whom I inspired with the same 
design." * 

He made his novitiate in the Recollect Con- 
vent at Bethune in the province of Artois, where 
his Master of Novices was Father Gabriel de la 
Ribourde, a man eminent alike for his high social 
position and for a most exemplary life f and who 
was destined at a later day to die for the 
faith, while laboring as a missionary in America. 

" As I advanced in age," says he, "an inclination 
for traveling in foreign parts strengthened in my 
heart. One of my sisters who was married at 
Ghent, and for whom I entertained a very strong- 
affection, used every argument indeed, to divert 
me from this project, while I was in that great 
city to which I had gone in order to learn 

* Nouvelle Decouverte, p. 8, 
f Nouv. Decouv., pp. 488-9, 



HENNEPIN. 11 

Flemish. But I was urged by several of my 

Amsterdam friends to go to the East Indies, and 

my natural inclination to travel, supporting their 

entreaties, shook my resolution greatly, and I 

almost resolved to embark in order to gratify this 

desire."* 

" All my sister's remonstrances could not divert 

me from my first design. I accordingly set out 
to see Italy and by order of the General of our 
order, I visited the finest churches and the most 
important convents of our order in that country 
and Germany, in v^^hich I began to satisfy my 
natural curiosity. At last returning to our Nether- 
lands, the Rev. Father William Herinx, a Re- 
collect, v^^ho died not long since Bishop of Ipres -j* 
opposed my project of continuing my travels. 
He placed me in the convent of Halles in Hainaut 
where I discharged the duty of a preacher for a 
year. After that with my superior's leave I went 

* lb., pp. 9, 10. 

t He was bishop from Oct, 24, 1677, to Aug. 15, 1678, 
Gams, Series Episcoporum. 



1 2 SKETCH OF 

to Artois, and was thence sent to Calais, during 
the season for salting herrings." 

" In this place my strongest passion was to listen 
to the stories which sea captains told of their long 
voyages. I then returned to our convent of Biez 
by Dunkirk : but I often hid behind the tavern 
doors, while the sailors were talking over their 
cruises. While thus endeavoring to hear them 
the tobacco smoke sickened me terribly ; yet I 
listened eagerly to all that these men told of their 
adventures at sea, of the dangers they had en- 
countered, and the various incidents of their 
voyages in foreign parts. I would have passed 
whole days and nights without eating in this 
occupation, which was so agreeable to me, because 
I always learned something new about the manners 
and mode of life of foreign nations, and touching 
the beauty, fertility and riches of the countries 
where these men had been." 

" I accordingly was more and more confirmed 
in my old inclination. With the view of grati- 
fying it the more, I went as a missionary to most 



"HENNEPIN. 13 

of the cities of Holland, and at last halted at 
Maestricht, where I remained about eight months. 
There I administered the sacraments to more 
than three thousand wounded. While there en- 
gaged in this occupation, I was several times in 
great danger among these sick people. I was 
even myself taken down with purples and dysen- 
tery, and was within an inch of the grave. But 
God at last restored me my former health by the 
care and aid of a very able Dutch physician." 

" The following year, by an impulse of my zeal 
I again devoted myself to labor for the salvation 
of souls. I was then at the bloody battle of 
SenefF" (Aug. 11, 1674), "where so many men 
perished by fire and steel. There I had abundant 
occupation in relieving and comforting the poor 
wounded men. And at last after enduring great 
hardships and encountering extreme dangers in 
sieges of cities, in trenches and on the field of 
battle, where I exposed myself greatly for the 
salvation of my neighbor, while the soldiers 
breathed only blood and carnage, I beheld my- 



F4 SKETCH OF 

self in a condition to satisfy my first inclina- 
tions."'* 

Canada had become for a second time a field 
of labor for the Recollect missionaries. The 
Count de Frontenac, Governor General, was 
especially anxious to have them in the colony as 
a balance to the Jesuits and the Bishop, who with 
his secular clergy held very strict rules of morahty, 
especially on the point of selHng liquor to the 
Indians. 

The King of France, Louis XIV, yielding to 
the appeal of the Count de Frontenac, wrote to 
him on the 22d of April, 1675. "I ^^^e sent 
five Recollect religious to Canada to reinforce 
the community of these religious already estab- 
lished there."-]- 

Father Hennepin was one of those selected. " I 
then received orders," he continues, " from my 
superiors to proceed to Rochelle in order to em- 
bark as a missionary for Canada. For two months 

* Nouv. Decouv. pp. 10—12. 
t Margry i, p. 251, 



HENNEPIN. 15 

I discharged the duties of parish priest two leagues 
from that city, because I had been requested to 
do so by the pastor of theplace who was absent." 

*' At last," proceeds Father Hennepin, " I 
abandoned myself entirely to Providence and 
undertook this great sea voyage of twelve or thir- 
teen hundred leagues, the greatest and perhaps 
the longest that is made on the ocean." 

" I accordingly embarked with Messire Francis 
de Laval, just then created Bishop of Petras a in 
partibus infidelium and subsequently made Bishop 
of Quebec the Capital of Canada."* Another 
distinguished personage who made the voyage in 
the same vessel was Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la 
Salle, to whom Louis XIV, on the 13th of May, 
1675, granted Fort Frontenac and whose vanity 
he gratified with a patent of nobility. 

* The See of Quebec was erected Oct. i, 1674, and Mgr. 
Laval, had been Bishop of Petraea since 1658. This part of 
the Nouvelle Decouverte seems suspicious and in the same 
paragraph is the blunder which misled Greenhow, where the 
text says that Hennepin was a missionary in Canada while 
Fenelon, afterwards archbishop of Cambray resided there. It 
was really Fenelon's brother. Hennepin himself could not 
have made these errors. 



l6 SKETCH OF 

The name of the vessel is not given nor the 
date of sailing.* 

Hennepin speaks of the perils of the voyage, 
engagements in the Turkish vessels from Tunis 
and Algiers which did all tliey could to capture 
his vessel, but which were defeated. He saw a 
combat between a sword fish and a whale, and 
was filled with astonishment when he beheld the 
fishermen of many different countries taking cod 
off Newfoundland. 

" This sight," he adds, " gave great pleasure to 
our crew, who numbered about one hundred, to 
three-fourths of whom I administered the sacra- 
ments because they were Catholics. I performed 
the divine office every calm day, and we then 
sang the Itinerary in French set to music, after 
we had said our evening prayers. ""j* 

* The Avis au Lecteur p. 4, says that Hennepin came over 
in 1676, but it is clear that he came in 1675, as Bishop Laval 
whose fellow voyager he was, reached Quebec, September 1675. 
Le Clercq, ii, p. 121, attended a meeting of the Council 
of Quebec, Oct. 7, 1675. Edits et Ordonnances ii, p. 64, and 
they must have sailed after May 19, 1675. See Edits et Ordon- 
nances, i p. 81. 

f Nouv. Decouv., p. 15. 



HENNEPIN. 17 

Besides the sailors he had another Uttle flock. 
This was a number of girls sent over to settle in 
Canada. His zeal for their spiritual good led to 
an angry passage between him and La Salle. 

" This charge one day obliged me, while we 
were at sea, to censure several girls who were on 
board and were sent to Canada. They made a 
great noise by their dancing and thus prevented 
the sailors from getting their rest at night ; so 
that I was obliged to reprimand them somewhat 
severely, in order to oblige them to stop, and to 
observe due modesty and tranquility." 

"This afforded the Sieur Robert Cavelier de la 
Salle an occasion of anger against me, which he 
never forgot. He made a show of wishing to 
uphold these girls in their amusement. He 
could not refrain from telling me one day 
somewhat angrily, that I acted like a pedant to- 
wards him and all the officers, and persons of 
quality who were on the vessel, and who enjoyed 
seeing these girls dance, since I criticised them 
for trifles ; but Mgr Francis de Laval, created 



I 8 SKETCH OF 

first Bishop of Quebec, who made the voyage 
with us, having given me the direction of these 
girls, I thought I had a right to reply to the Sieur 
de la Salle, that I had never been a pedant, a term 
which, as all the world knows, signifies a man 
of a foolish and impertinent turn of mind, and 
who affects to display on all occasions, an ill 
digested learning. I added moreover, that these 
girls were under my direction, and that I thus had 
a right to rebuke them and censure them as they 
took on themselves too much liberty. 

"This answer which I made with no other 
view than to show the said Sieur de la Salle that 
I was doing my duty, made him livid with anger, 
and in fact he raged violently against me. I 
contented myself with telling him, seeing him 
thus disposed towards me, that he took things ill, 
and th'dt I had no intention of offending him, as 
in fact it was not my design." 

" Monsieur de Barrois, who had formerly been 
secretary to the French ambassador in Turkey, 
and who at this time filled the same post under 



HENNEPIN. 19 

the Count de Frontenac, seeing this affair, drew 
me aside, and told me that I had inadvertently 
put the Sieur de la Salle in a great passion, when 
I told him that I had never been a pedant, be- 
cause he had plied the trade for ten or eleven 
years while he was among the Jesuits and that 
he had really been regent or teacher of a class, 
among these religious." 

"[ replied to the Sieur de Barrois that I had 
said this very innocently ; that 1 had never known 
that the Sieur de la Salle had lived in that famous 
order ; that had I been aware of it, I should 
doubtless have avoided uttering that word pedant 
in addressing him ; that I knew it to be an offen- 
sive term, that, in fact, men generally expressed 
by it an "ill polished savant" according to the 
French expression of the Gentlemen of Port 
Royal ; that thus I should have avoided using that 
term, had I been better informed than I was 
in regard to the life of the said Sieur de la Salle.* 

*:Nouv. Dec. Avis an Lecteur. 



2G SKETCH OF 

To this affair Hennepin attributes a life long 
hostility of La Salle towards him, although we 
see no traces of it in his Relation of Louisiana. 

On reaching Canada he assures us that Bishop 
Laval " considering that during the voyage I had 
displayed great zeal in my sermons and in my 
assiduity in performing the divine office, and had 
moreover prevented several women and girls, who 
were sent over with us, from taking too much 
liberty with the young men of our crew, to whose 
hostility I thus frequently exposed myself, — these 
reasons and several others obtained for me the 
encomiums and good will of this illustrious bish- 
op. He accordingly obliged me to preach the 
Advent and Lent in the cloister of the Hospital 
Nuns of St. Augustine, in Quebec."* 

" However, my natural inclination was not 
satisfied with all this. I accordingly often went 
twenty or thirty leagues from our residence to 
visit the country. I carried on my back a little 

* lb,, p. 17, Mother Juchereau, in her Histoire de I'Hotel 
Dieu says nothing of Hennepin under this year. 



HENNEPIN. ^I 

chapel service and walked with large snow shoes, 
but for which I should often have fallen into 
fearful precipices where I should have been lost. 
Sometimes, in order to relieve myself, I had my 
little equipage drawn by a large dog that I took 
along, and this I did the sooner to reach Three 
Rivers, Saint Anne, Cap Tourmente, Bourg 
Royal, Pointe de Levi and the Isle of St. Laurent.* 
There I gathered in one of the largest cabins of 
these places as many people as I could. Then I 
admitted them to confession and holy communion. 
At night I had usually only a cloak to cover me. 
The frost often penetrated to my very bones. I 
was obliged to light my fire five or six times 
during the night for fear of being frozen to death ; 
and I had only in very moderate quantities, the 
food I needed to live, and to prevent my perish- 
ing with hunger on the way," 

" During the summer I was forced to travel in 

* Besides the places here enumerated he mentions elsewhere 
" Isle Percee where I lived in quality of a missionary a whole 
summer for the benefit of the fishermen who came there every 
year with several ships." 



2± SKETCH Ot^ 

a canoe to continue my mission," " because there 
are no practicable roads in that country." * "I 
was sent as it were to try me, to a mission more 
than ahundredand twenty leagues fromQuebec."f 
His voyage to Fort Frontenac is described in 
the following pages ; but in the Nouvelle De- 
couverte he says : 

"I made several different voyages, sometimes 
with Canadian settlers, whom we had drawn to 
our Fort Catarokouy to live, sometimes with 
Indians whom I had become acquainted with. 
As I foresaw that they would excite the suspicion 
of the Iroquois in regard to our discoveries, I 
wished to see the Indians of their five Cantons. 
I accordingly went among them with one of our 
soldiers from said fort, making a journey of about 
seventy leagues, and both having large snowshoes 
on our feet, on account of the snow which is 
abundant in that country during winter. I had 

* Nouv. Dec, pp. 17-19. 
t lb., p. 23. 



HENNEPIN. 23 

already some little knowledge of the Iroquois 
language."* 

" We thus passed to the Honnehiouts Iroquois 
and to the Honnontagez,j" who received us very 
well. This nation is the most warlike of all the 
Iroquois." 

" At last we arrived at the Ganniekez or Agniez. J 
This is one of the five Iroquois nations situated a 
good day's journey from the neighborhood of 
New Netherland, now called New York." 

" We remained sometime among this last 
nation and we lodged with a Jesuit Father, born 
in Lyons, in order to transcribe a little Iroquois 
dictionary. The weather having cleared off, we 
one day saw three Dutchmen arrive on horseback 
who came to the Iroquois as ambassadors for the 
beaver trade. They had gone there by order of 
Major Andris." . . . . " These gentlemen dis- 

* pp. 25-6, I can find nothing in Canadian documents as to 
his labors. 

f Oneidas and Onondagas. 
X Mohawks. 



2^ SKETCH OF 

mounted from their horses to make us get on them 
and take us with them to New Orange in order 
to regale me there. When they heard me speak 
Flemish they showed me much friendship. 
They then assured me that they would have been 
glad to see me reside among them for the spiritual 
consolation of several Catholics from our Low 
Countries, who were in their settlements. I would 
have done so willingly since they requested it, 
but I feared to give umbrage to the Jesuits, who 
had received me very well, and moreover I 
feared I might injure the colony of Canada in its 
beaver and fur trade with the Indians, whom I 
knew. We accordingly thanked these worthy 
Hollanders, and returned to our ordinary abode 
at Catarokouy, with less difficulty than in going."* 

* This visit to the Mohawks and encounter with the Dutch 
was in April, 1677, and is confirmed by N. Y. Col. Doc, iv, 
p. 689, ix, p. 720. It has generally been inferred from the 
language that he visited Albany, but this is controverted by 
Brodhead, History of New York ii, p. 307. Historical Maga- 
zine 10, p. 268. The Jesuit missionary whom he visited was 
Father James Bruyas, and he copied his " Racines Agnieres," 



HENNEPIN. 25 

From Fort Catarocouy his subsequent journey- 
ings are given in the following pages which 
describe La Salle's expedition to Niagara, Mich- 
ilimakinac, Green Bay, the Fort of the Miamis, 
and Crevecoeur. Then after La Salle's departure, 
his own expedition with Ako down the Illinois to 
the Mississippi and up to the falls of St. Anthony, 
descending then to the Wisconsin, thence by way 
of Green Bay back to the Saint Lawrence, and 
Quebec. 

Taking passage to France he reached that 
country again in 1681 or 1682. He wrote the 
following work in the latter year. It was regis- 
tered September 10, 1682, and the printing com- 
pleted on the 5th of January, thereafter. 

During this time he was apparently at the 
convent at St. Germain-en-Laye. After this he 
was Vicar and Acting Superior of the Recollects 

" Mohawk Radical Words," which nearly ttvo centuries after 
I also copied and published in 1863. This work is the source 
of Hennepin's Iroquois, and an example in one of Bruyas' 
works, is made a ground of accusation against the Jesuits. See 
Margry i, p. 321, 394 
3 



26 SKETCH OF 

at Chateau Cambresis, where he was visited by 
his old companion Father Zenobius Membre. 

He was, he tells us in the Nouvelle Decouverte, 
Guardian of the Recollects at Renti in Artois for 
three years, and during that time almost rebuilt 
the convent, but having declined to return to the 
American mission at the request of F. Hyacinth 
le Fevre, Commissary Provincial of the Recollects 
of Paris, who claimed jurisdiction as Royal Com- 
missary over all the Recollects in the Netherland 
provinces captured from Spain, that Superior be- 
came his enemy. He prevented F. Hennepin 
from accompanying F. Alexander Voile, pro- 
minister of the Recollects of Artois to Rome to 
attend a chapter of the order, and then ordered 
him to return to the Recollect convent at St. 
Omer. This was followed by an order obtained 
from Mr. de Louvois, first minister of State, 
ordering Hennepin to leave French territory and 
return to the dominions of his own sovereign, the 
King of Spain. 

Hennepin appealed to King Louis XIV, pre- 



HENNEPIN. 27 

senting a placet to him, detailing his trials, while 
the king was encamped at the chapel of Harle- 
mont. Louis XIV, placed it in the hands of the 
Grand Provost of the Court and it was lost sight of. 

After this Father Hennepin was, he tells us. 
Confessor of the Recollect Nuns (Penitents) at 
Gosselies. During his nearly five years' stay here, 
he states that he built a very fine church, doubly 
vaulted, a very convenient parlor, and several 
other edifices. This was attested, he declares, by 
a certificate of the nuns and by their letters to the 
General Chapter. 

He was not however left in peace. F. Louis 
le Fevre wished to incorporate him in the 
province of Flanders, declaring that Gosselies 
was in French territory. This he denies and 
affirms that he was there by virtue of a lettre de 
cachet of the King of Spain. 

He gained the friendship of Blaithwayt, Sec- 
retary of War to William IK who obtained a 
safeguard for the nuns, which saved their con- 
vent from pillage on several occasions. 



28 SKETCH OF 

Blaithwayt wrote in the name of William III, 
to the Father Rennere de Payez, Commissary 
General of the Recollects at Louvain, asking him 
to send Hennepin to the American mission, but 
as there was no immediate response, Hennepin 
solicited the blessing of Monsignor Scarlati, in- 
ternuncio at Brussels, and receiving it at Ath, pro- 
ceeded to Louvain with a letter from Father 
Bonaventure Poerius, General of his order (Mar. 
31, 1696), assuring the Father that the Commis- 
sary would do all that was fair. 

The Commissary wrote to the Baron de Mal- 
quenech, and to Mr. de Coxis and sent Hennepin 
to the Recollect Convent at Antwerp, where Mr. 
Hill, envoy extraordinary of his Britannic Maj- 
esty, furnished him money to purchase the 
ordinary clothing of gentlemen. 

Some allude to this as though Hennepin aban- 
doned his order, but he seems to have acted with 
the express permission of his superiors. 

He then set out for Amsterdam in company 
with a Venetian ship captain, but they were 



HENNEPIN. 29 

Stopped between Antwerp and Mordick by six 
horsemen who robbed them of all their money. 
By the help of some friends he managed how- 
ever to reach Loo, and the Hague, where he 
was very well received by Blaithwayt and had an 
audience with William III. He finally reached 
Amsterdam and endeavored to obtain a publisher, 
but the volume, that was to prove one of the most 
popular yet issued on America, did not seem a safe 
venture and with the consent of the Earl of 
Athlone, Hennepin journeyed to Utrecht. There 
William Broedelet undertook the work, and it 
appeared in 1697, in a duodecimo of 586 pages 
with an engraved title page, in which as though 
he claimed the nobility that La Salle obtained 
for all his men, he is styled Louis de Hennepin, 
although on the printed title he is still the modest 
commoner Louis Hennepin. 

He dedicates the work to William HI in terms 
of flattery as extravagant as those with which he 
placed his former volume under the protection of 
Louis XIV. 



3C SKETCH OF 

Willing now to return to America as a mission- 
ary, he sought the support of William III, not as 
the overthrower of the Catholic King of England, 
but as the ally of Catholic Spain and Catholic 
Bavaria, and the protector of the Spanish Nether- 
land. 

After publishing a third book at Amsterdam, 
in 1698, in which he complains of the hostility 
to him of some people in that city, he apparently 
made new efforts to return to Canada, ac a dis- 
patch of Louis XIV, to the Governor of the 
province in 1699, orders that officer to arrest 
Hennepin and send him back to Rochefort.* 

The last allusion to him now traced is in a 
letter of J. B. Dubos to Thouinard, written at 
Rome, March i, 1701, in which Father Henne- 
pin is said to have been then at the convent of 
Aracoeli in Rome, and to have induced Cardinal 
Spada, whose favor he enjoyed to found a new 
mission in the Mississippi country, where Father 
Hennepin hoped to renew his earlier labors.^* 

* N. Y, Col. Doc, ix, p. 701. 

I Brunei, 2 p. 539. Historical Magazine, i p. 316. 



HENNEPIN. 31 

J. B. Foppens, a bibliographer of the last 
century in his Bibliotheca Belgica, Brussels, 1739 
(vol. ii, pp. 832-3) says that Hennepin wrote also 
" La Morale Pratique du Jansenisme avec un 
Appel comme d' abus au Pope Innocent XIL" 

Researches in Belgium, Holland and Rome have 
failed to throw any further light on his personal 
history. The annalists of his order have gathered 
nothing, and the local histories of the places in 
which he passed an occasional term of years pre- 
serve no details as to him. 

My own efforts, like those of the Hon. Henry 
C. Murphy some years since, have been fruitless. 

Hennepin was from the first very freely 
attacked, and in our day scholars have impeached 
his character for truth with very little ceremony. 

La Salle in his letter of August, 1682, which 
gives no very high idea of his own veracity, wish- 
ing to forestal any representations of Hennepin 
that would make him a prisoner among the Sioux 
rescued by Du Lhut, when he wished him to 
appear as an explorer of the Sioux country before 



32 SKETCH OF 

Du Lhut, says : " It is necessary to know him 
somewhat, for he will not fail to exaggerate every- 
thing ; it is his character ;" * yet La Salle else- 
where appeals to his testimony,! ^^'^ ^^ ^^^^ letter 
shows a disposition to sacrifice Hennepin's cha- 
racter to further his own interested views. 

The eminent Sulpitian, the Rev. Mr. Tronson, 
writing to the Abbe Belmont at Montreal, 
speaking of Father Membre, says, in 1683 : "I 
do not know whether men will believe all he 
says, any more than they will all that is in the 
printed Relation of Father Louis, which I send 
you that you may make your reflections on it." J 

The ^cfa Eruditorum, Leipsic, 1683, pp. 374, 
etc., gives a long summary of the Description de 
la Louistane, and raises no charge against it. 

Father Le Clercq refers to Hennepin and his 
first work in terms of praise in 1691 ; but De § 

* lb,, p. 230. 

t Margry ii, p. 259. 

X Margry ii, p. 305. 

§ Etablissement de la Foi, ii, pp. 114, 160, 161. 



HENNEPIN. 33 

Michel, the editor of Joutel in 171 3, says: 
" Father Hennepin, a Fleming, of the same order 
of Recollects, who seems to know the country 
well, and who took part in great discoveries ; 
although the truth of his Relations is very much 
contested. He is the one who went northward 
towards the source of the Missicipi, which he 
called Mechasipi, and who printed at Paris a Re- 
lation of the countries around that river under the 
name of Louisiana. He should have stopped there 
and not gone on, as he did in Holland, to issue 
another edition much enlarged, and perhaps not 
so true, which he dedicated to William HI, 
Prince of Orange, then king of Great Britain, a 
design as odd as it was ridiculous in a religious, 
not to say worse. For after great long eulogies 
which he makes in his dedication of this Pro- 
testant prince, he begs and conjures him to think 
of these vast unknown countries, to conquer them, 
send colonies there and obtain for the Indians, the 
knowledge of the true God and of his worship 
and to cause the gospel to be preached. This 



34- SKETCH OF 

good religious whom many on account of his 

extravagance, falsely believed to have become an 

apostate, had no thought of such a thing. So he 

scandalized the Catholics and set the Huguenots 
laughing. For would these enemies of the 

Roman church pay Recollects to go to Canada 
to preach Popery as they called it? Or would 
they carry any religion but their own ? And 
Father Hennepin, can he in that case offer any 
excuse." * 

Still later Father Charlevoix savs of his works : 
" All these works are written in a declamatory 
style, which offends by its turgidity and shocks by 
the liberties which the author takes and his un- 
becoming invectives. As for the substance of 
matters Father Hennepin thought he might take 
a traveler's license, hence he is much decried in 
Canada, those who had accompanied him having 
often protested that he was anything but veritable 
in his histories." f 

* Journal Historique, p. 363. 

f Histoire de la Nouvelle France, i, p. liv. 



HENNEPIN. ^^ 

In our own time and country, Sparks showed 
how the Nouvdle Decouverte was made up from 
Le Clercq, and Bancroft, Parkman, and most 
of our historical students agree in impeach- 
ing his veracity. This charge rested on the 
Nouvelle Decouverte^ while the Description de la 
Louisiave was as generally received as authentic. 

Thomassy, in his Geologie Pratique de la Lou- 
isiane gave a narrative of the voyage down the 
Mississippi as La Salle's, which coincided with 
that given by Le Clercq, as written by Father 
Zenobius Membre. Then Margry gives a narra- 
tive covering the whole ground of Hennepin's 
first book, which he ascribes to La Salle, and he 
says : " It is certain that Father Hennepin knew 
this document, from which he made many ex- 
tracts, but this could be no reason for our not 
publishing it, first because the author of the Des- 
cription de la Louisiane often intermingles error 
with his statements* and also because he left 

* After studying the work carefully, I cannot discover the 
errors, unless the misprint ot peroquets for pirogues justified the 
charge. But Margry's own blunders are even worse. 



36 SKETCH OF 

Cavelier de la Salle about twenty-two months 
before the time when our manuscript closes. 
There was moreover a real interest in verifying 
the plagiarisms of the man who was subsequently 
to attempt to deprive the discoverer of the honor 
of his labors," etc.* Subsequently f in conse- 
quence of a misprint in Hennepin of perroquets 
for pirogues he repeats the charge of plagiarism, 
though as he himself prints Gamier for Gravier, 
Le Noble for Zenobe, and embuscade for ambass- 
ade he ought not to be too severe. 

This charge that the Description de la Louisiane 
was copied from the document now given by 
Margry has been taken up in this country with- 
out sufficient examination : but it is really too 
shallow even for such an utterly uncritical mind 
as Margry's to be pardoned for putting forth. 

This Relation des Descouvertes is anonymous 
and undated. Margry himself asks whether it 
was written by La Salle himself or " only by a 

* Margry ii, p. 435 n. 
t P- 467. "• 



HENNEPIN. rs>n 

learned ecclesiastic, by means of letters addressed 
by the discoverer to some one of his friends or 
associates." Elsewhere he gives his opinion that 
it is the work of the Abbe Bernou ; but as he 
was never in America, he could only be a com- 
piler, and must have used Hennepin's work, and 
it is necessary only to read a letter of Bernou in 
Margry iii, p. 74, to see what an unscrupulous 
intriguer Bernou was. If we analyze this 
Margry document we find it forms three dis- 
tinct divisions, ist an account of LaSalle's ope- 
rations down to his and Hennepin's departure 
from Fort Crevecceur ; 2d an account of Hen- 
nepin's voyage up the Mississippi and through 
the Wisconsin to Green Bay. 3d an account of 
La Salle's return to Fort Frontenac, his second 
visit to Illinois and his operations to 1681. 

Now as Hennepin was with La Salle or his 
party during the first period, he was competent 
to keep a journal of events, that might be written 
out in one form as La Salle's official report, and 
in another as the missionary's report to his own 



38 



SKETCH OF 



superiors. As to the second part Margry asks us 
to accept the preposterous idea that La Salle 
possessed by some supernatural means the know- 
ledge of all that Hennepin saw and did after 
leaving him at Fort Crevecceur, that La Salle 
committed this knowledge to writing, and that 
Hennepin, instead of describing what he saw and 
did as an eye witness, stole his account from this 
wonderful document of La Salle. La Salle him- 
self acknowledges the receipt of letters from 
Hennepin and insists on the reality of his dis- 
covery ; and to uphold it as against Du Lhut in- 
sists that Hennepin exaggerated in making out 
that he was a prisoner. As La Salle himself 
admits that his knowledge of this part came from 
Hennepin, he has already refuted Margry*s 
absurd idea that Hennepin stole this from him. 
As to the third part, there is nothing of it in 
Hennepin, so that Margry's charge depends en- 
tirely on the first part ; and he utterly fails to 
explain how Hennepin refrained from any pla- 
giarism of the third part. 



HENNEPIN. 39 

The reader will see in the following pages that 
Margry's document in the first part agrees pretty 
closely with Hennepin, omitting comparatively 
little, while it abridges the second part greatly. 

The whole question is confined therefore to 
the first part, and as to that there is a simple test. 
If the narrative describes in detail events that 
befel the party while La Salle was absent and 
alludes briefly to what La Salle did, the narrative 
is Hennepin's ; if on the contrary it follows La 
Salle's actions day by day and alludes generally 
to what the party was doing in his absence, it 
must be La Salle's. 

Now the Margry Relation follows the party 
in which Hennepin was from Fort Frontenac 
to Niagara, gives La Motte's visit to the Senecas 
and then alludes briefly to La Salle's having been 
wrecked, but does not mention the fact that he 
had previously visited the Senecas and efl^ected 
what La Motte had failed to accomplish. Every 
person of sense will admit that this is not La 
Salle's account but Hennepin's. 



4-0 SKETCH OF 

Later on La Salle's return to Fort Frontenac, 
his troubles with his creditors, his visit to the 
colony are all noticed briefly, while the affairs on 
the Niagara are detailed. This part is evidently 
not La Salle's. 

The account of the portage leading to the 
Illinois river, where La Salle was separated from 
his party is not his personal account, but of one 
like Hennepin with the main body. 

These cases and minor ones all tend to show 
that it is not La Salle's narrative but Hennepin's. 

La Salle apparently took the Recollects to 
chronicle his doings. Hennepin kept a journal; 
Membre did also, as Le Clercq assures us ; Joutel 
tells us that he seized and destroyed memoirs of 
Father Maxime le Clercq.* Why La Salle 
always had such an array of priests with him is a 
mystery. If from first to last he was led by 
Peiialosa's curious account of his journey to 
the Mississippi from New Mexico, to attempt 
the conquest of some of the rich mines, as he 

* Le Clercq ii, p. 167. Joutel p. 148. 



HENNEPIN 41* 

undoubtedly was aiming at, when he landed in 
Texas, we can understand that the priests would 
help to relieve the expedition from suspicion, and 
prevent harsh measures on the part of the Spani- 
ards, as the priests were all Spanish subjects.* 

Otherwise it is not easy to understand why, 
when Frontenac was appealing for Recollects to 
serve in the colony and be more indulgent 
spiritual guides than the Jesuits and the secular 
clergy, he should send five off to accompany an 
exploring expedition thousands of miles. While 
Canada was suffering for want of priests. La 
Salle's grand army of eleven men including him- 
self and his valet, sailed from Green Bay with 
three Recollect priests, to minister to their 
spiritual wants. 

Every view of the question confirms the 
opinion that the narrative is really Hennepin's ; 

* The charge made by Hennepin that La Salle was aiming 
at the Santa Barbara mines was long put down as a falsehood 
and a slander on La Salle. Yet now with the official docu- 
ments of the French government, the papers of Beaujeu and 
Dainmaville's account, it is evident that Hennepin was right. 
4 



42* SKETCH OF 

and that the document in Margry was compiled 
from it by an unknown hand. 

Only one question remains, and that is whether 
Margry's anonymous compiler plagiarized from 
a document drawn up by Hennepin in America, 
or from his printed work. 

Hennepin publishing his book at Paris, very 
naturally mentions the fact that his fellow trave- 
ler Antoine Auguelle, known by the soubriquet 
of Le Picard du Gay, was at that time actually 
in Paris, appealing as it were to his testimony in 
confirmation of his statements. Yet in the 
Margry Relation (i, p. 478), it mentions that 
the Picard " is at present in Paris." Now how 
could La Salle who did not see Hennepin or 
Auguelle after their return, know exactly in 
what part of France Auguelle was ? The state- 
ment is perfectly irreconcileable with the idea 
that this document was written by La Salle in 
America ; and the fact that it appears in the 
Margry Relation seems to show that its compiler 
used Hennepin's book without giving credit, and 



HENNEPIN 43* 

used, not a draft or copy made in America, but 
the edition printed in Paris but had not the 
honesty to cite Hennepin and refer to him. A 
careful comparison of the first and second parts 
of Margry's Relation with Hennepin's Descrip- 
tion de la Louisiane, 1683, will satisfy any one 
that the vaunted Margry document is a mere 
plagiarism from Hennepin's first work as far as 
it goes. 

Now what is the credit to be given to Henne- 
pin's work here given ? It will not do to assert 
that it is not trustworthy and say that Margry's 
Relation is. They are so near alike that if one 
is not trustworthy, the other is not. 

In the following pages references are made to 
documents of La Salle, Tonti and others relating 
to the same events. In not a single case is Hen- 
nepin contradicted or shown to be in error. Mr. 
Parkman alluding to the claims set up in the 
Nouvelle Decouverte says : " they are not in the 
early editions of Hennepin which are compara- 
tively truthful." " Hennepin's account of the 



44* SKETCH OF 

falls and river of Niagara, especially his second 
account on his return from the west, is very 
minute and on the whole very accurate." " His 
distances on the Niagara are usually correct," 
'Hennepin's account of the buffalo is interesting 
and true." " Fortunately there are tests by which 
the earlier parts of his book can be tried ; and 
on the whole they square exceedingly well with 
contemporary records of undoubted authenticity. 
Bating his exaggerations respecting the Falls of 
Niagara, his local descriptions, and even his 
estimates of distance are generally accurate."* 

" As for his ascent of that river (Mississippi) to 
the country of the Sioux, the general statement 
is fully confirmed by allusions of Tonty and other 
contemporary writers. For the details of the 
journey, we must rest on Hennepin alone ; 

whose account of the country and of the peculiar 

traits of its Indians afford, as far as they go, good 

evidence of truth." 

Such is the testimony of Parkman given at 

various points of his work. 

* Discovery of the Great West p. 124, 126, 133, 155, 228. 



HENNEPIN 45* 

Hennepin is certainly the first who gave Da- 
kota words : and he gives them accurately as 
will be seen by the reference to Riggs' Dakota 
Dictionary. Parkman who lived for some weeks 
in a Sioux lodge says that a variety of trivial in- 
cidents mentioned by Hennepin are perfectly in 
accordance with usage. In regard "to Hennepin's 
Dakota terms he says: "These words as far as 
my information reaches, are in every instance 
correct." Even the word Louis, which Hennepin 
says signifies the sun, is no invention. " The 
Yankton band of this people, however, call the 
sun oouee^'' which, it is evident, represents the 
French pronunciation of Louis, omitting the 
initial letter.* 

The only charges that remain are that he was 
vain, boastful and exaggerated. 

His vanity must be admitted. Not even 
superior of thelittle band of missionaries, he makes 
himself a kind of joint commander with La Salle: 
and his vanity leads him to exaggerate his own 

* lb., p. 228-9. 



4-6* SKETCH OF 

deeds. But except in the estimate of the height 
of Niagara Falls, where Tonty is equally in error, 
his figures are accurate. 

The Description de la Louisiane is valuable, 
though we must bear in mind the real position 
of the writer. 

His next book the " Nouvelle Decouverte " 
contains the famous addition where he claims to 
have descended to the mouth, before going up to 
the Sioux country. 

A careful examination of this volume, which 
is in the following pages compared closely with 
the Description reveals some points heretofore 
overlooked. 

The book was not published, as originally 
printed, and seems to have been set up in two 
different offices. From page 313 where the 
account of his voyage up to the Sioux begins, the 
chapters have arabic numbers, while in the pre- 
vious part of the book, they have Roman numerals : 
the line at the top of the page omits a letter and 
an accent, and the type generally seems more 



HENNEPIN. 47* 

worn and the spacing is different. Practical 
printers and bibliographers alike agree that the 
two portions have every appearance of being 
printed in different offices. 

Before this point there are ten pages all num- 
bered 313*; so that certainly these were printed 
after the book was complete, and there is nothing 
to show but what much more was printed as an 
afterthought. 

This much is clear regarding the Nouvelle De- 
couverte merely from the mechanical point of view. 

Examining the matter, we find that the book 
introduces a great deal of personal detail and 
generally expands the narrative, but it substan- 
tially follows the Description de la Louisiane down 
to p. 216. Then with no apparent reason six 
pages are taken from La Clercq's Etablissement 
de la Foi (ii, pp. 173- 181), when Hennepin him- 
self could have given a better account. It then 
follows his first work to p. 247-8, where the pre- 
tended voyage down is introduced and the voyage 
described in terms taken from Le Clercq (ii, p. 



4^ SKETCH OF 

2 1 6). This matter continues to the last of the 
pages marked 3 1 3*, and may all have been printed 
after the book had actually been completed in its 
original form. On its very face Hennepin can 
scarcely be held absolutely responsible for a book 
thus tampered with. 

Hennepin had been on the Mississippi and had 
heard reports of the lower river from the Indians, 
he might easily have drawn up a plausible account 
of a voyage down ; he would have had no reason 
to take Membre's account and garble it. There 
are, moreover, actual errors in the book that 
Hennepin would not have made. He knew the 
country too well to make a nation Ouadebache, 
to give name to the river ; he would not have 
made "sasacouest," the Algonquin word for war- 
cry which the French had adopted, pass muster 
as a Chickasaw word meaning : '* Who goes 
there ?" Hennepin might like La Salle dispute 
JoUiet's priority, but he would scarcely make 
Jolliet disavow having sailed down the Mississppi. 



HENEPIN. 49* 

The place where he refers to his girdle as being 
worn as a cord of St. Francis would scarcely be 
written by a Franciscan. 

This intrusive matter cannot therefore abso- 
jutely be ascribed to Hennepin, and he be called 
a liar because it is false. 

Hennepin was disappointed in finding a pub- 
lisher at Amsterdam, and at Utrecht may have 
been required by Broedelet to put his book 
with the additional matter into the hands of some 
literary hack to edit. The whole book has been 
re-written and there are traces of another 
hand in various parts, in some cases making what 
is accurate and clear in the first book, unintelli- 
gible in the second. On p. 14 it reads: "I 
then embarked with Messire Francis de Laval 
then created Bishop of Petrsa in partibus injide- 
liumy In the Avis au Lecteur it reads : " I was 
sent to Canada as a missionary in the year 1676." 
** I made it (.ny travels) in North America from 



50* SKETCH OF 

the year 1679 to 1682, when I returned to 
Quebec." " I published a part of my voyage at 
Paris, in the year 1688." 

Now he really came over in 1675 ; Mgr. Laval 
had just been made Bishop of Quebec, and as 
Hennepin came in the same vessel he could not 
forget the fact. He returned to Quebec in 
1681, and published his first book in 1683. We 
cannot suppose that Hennepin himself could 
possibly make such a series of blunders. He would 
not apply the recognized Protestant term yasteur 
to a Catholic cure^ nor would he have altered his 
accurate account of the cove where the Griffin 
anchored at Michilimakinac, so as to lose all 
value in the second book. 

At this time English projects of expeditions 
to the mouth of the Mississippi were attracting 
attention,* and the careless irresponsible editor 
whose additions had already injured the work, 

* See Coxe's Carolana, London 1727. Preface. 



HENNEPIN. 51* 

may have sought to increase the popularity of 
the book, by suppressing part and inserting a 
voyage down to the mouth of the Mississippi, so 
as to make the volume bear directly on a question 
of the day. 

That this addition really helped to commend 
it to public favor, will be readily seen by the 
result. 

The Nouvelie Decouverte was reprinted at 
Amsterdam in 1698, in French, and issued in 
Dutch in 1698 and 1699. The Nouveau Voyage 

under his name came out at Utrecht in the same 
year 1698, made up from Le Clercq and con- 
taining the Indian matter of the " Description de 
la Louisiane " omitted in the " Nouvelie Decou- 
verte." 

The two books are embraced in the ** New 
Discovery," of which two editions appeared in 
London in 1698, and another edition in 1699, in 
which year also a Spanish summary of the 
Nouvelie Decouverte appeared. 



52* SKETCH OF 

To sum up all, the case stands thus : " The 
Description of Louisiana " by Father Hennepin, 
is clearly no plagiarism from La Salle's account, 
and on the contrary the so called La Salle Re- 
lation, is an anonymous undated plagiarism from 
Hennepin's book, and moreover the Description 
of Louisiana, is sustained by contemporary evi- 
dence and by the topography of the country, and 
our knowledge of the language and manners of 
the Sioux. It shows vanity in its author, but no 
falsification. So far as it goes it presents Henne- 
pin as truthful and accurate. 

A later work shows a suppression after print- 
ing, introduction of new and untrue matter, and 
the evident hand of an ignorant editor. For this 
book as finally published, Hennepin cannot be 
held responsible, nor can he justly be stigmatized 
as mendacious by reason of its false assertions. 

The third book is evidently by the same editor 
as the second, and the defence which it puts 



HENNEPIN. 53* 

forward in Hennepin's name cannot alter the 
facts, or make the original author responsible. 

In view of all this, it seems that now at least 
the case of Hennepin should be heard with more 
impartiality ; and we call for a rehearing in the 
view of documents now accessible, under the 
conviction that our earlier judgments were too 
hasty. 



DESCRIPTION 



OF 



LOUISIANA 



DESCRIPTIOJN 

DE LA 

LOUISIANE, 

NOUVELLEMENT DECOUVERTfi 
au Sud'Oiirrt de la Nouvclle Prance, 

PAR ORDRE DU ROY. 

Avetla Carte du, Fays: Lei Maurf 
& U Meniere de vivre 
des i>auvages. 

DEDIE'E A 5A MAJESTE* 

P<ir/rR. P.Louis Hennepin, 

Mifftonnaire Recollet <^ 
NotAtre jipQJlaUqHe, 




A PARIS, 

Chez la Vcuyc Sebastien Huri', ru^ 

Saint Jacques,' a J'lmagc S. Jerome, 

prcs S. Scvcrin, 

M. DC L XXX II I. 



DESCRIPTION 

OF 

LOUISIANA, 

RECENTLY DISCOVERED SOUTHWEST OF 

NEW FRANCE, 

BY ORDER OF THE KING. 



WITH A MAP OF THE COUNTRY ; THE MANNERS AND MODE 
OF LIFE OF THE INDIANS. 

DEDICATED TO HIS MAJESTY, 

By THE Rev. FATHER LOUIS HENNEPIN, 

RECOLLECT MISSIONARY AND 
NOTARY APOSTOLIC. 




PARIS. 

The Widow of Sebastian Hure, Rue 

St. Jacques, at the Picture of St. 

Jerome near St. Severin. 

1683 

WITH THE ROYAL PRIVILEGE. 



TO THE KING. 

Sire : 

I never should have ventured to take the 
liberty of offering to your Majesty the Relation 
of a new Discovery which the Sieur de la Salle, 
Governor of Fort Frontenac, my Companions and 
myself, have just made southwest of New France, 
had it not been undertaken by your orders, and 
had not the glory of obeying so glorious a 
Monarch, in an employment having in view the 
conversion of the heathen, led me into this enter- 
prize. 

It is in this thought, Sire, that I undertook so 
long and so painful a voyage, without fearing the 
greatest dangers. I even venture to assure your 
Majesty, that the bloody death of one of my Re- 
collect companions, massacred by those savages, a 
captivity of eight months in which I have seen my 
life cruelly exposed, could not weaken my courage, 
having always made it a consolation amid my 



44 EPISTLE. 

hardships, to labor for a God, whom I wished to 
see known and adored by these nations, and for 
a King whose glory and whose virtues are un- 
bounded. 

It is clear, Sire, that as soon as we have been able 
to tame them and win their friendship, the par- 
tial account we have given them of your Most 
Christian Majesty's heroic virtues, your surprizing 
actions in your conquests, the happiness and love 
of your subjects, has inclined them to receive 
more readily the principles of Gospel truths and 
to reverence the cross which we have carved on 
trees above your Arms, as a mark of the con- 
tinual protection which you give the Christian 
religion, and to make them remember the prin- 
ciples which we have happily taught them. 

We have given the name of Louisiana * to this 
great Discovery, being persuaded that your 
Majesty would not disapprove that a part of 

* As for the credit of naming Louisiana, see La Salle's Grant 
of an island to Francois Daupin, Sieur de la Forest, June lO, 
1679. Margry ii, p. 21, where the term Louisiana is used. 



EPISTLE. 45 

the earth watered by a river more than eight 
hundred leagues in length, and much greater than 
Europe, which we may call the Delight of Ame- 
rica and which is capable of forming a great 
Empire, should henceforth be known under the 
august name of Louis, that it may thereby have 
some show of right to aspire to the honor of your 
protection, and hope for the advantage of belong- 
ing to you. 

It seems. Sire, that God had destined you to be 
its Master, by the happy correspondence that there 
is between your glorious name and the Sun, which 
they call Louis in their language, and to which 
in token of their respect and adoration, they 
extend their pipe before smoking, with these 
words : Tchendiouba * Louis, that is to say 
" Smoke O Sun." Thus your Majesty's name 

* Riggs gives in his Dakota Dictionary pp. 40-1, Chandu- 
hupa, a Dakota pipe, evidently Hennepin's word : and wi, the 
sun or moon, lb. p. 240, equivalent to the French out; in Yank- 
ton uw^i, Parkman's Discovery, p. 229; equivalent to the 
French outs (00-we) and approaching nearer to Louis. 



46 EPISTLE. 

is every moment on their lips, as they do nothing 
till they have rendered homage to the Sun under 
this name of Louis. 

After that, Sire, no one will doubt that it is a 
secret mystery of Providence which has reserved 
to your care and your piety, the glory of causing 
the Light of Faith to be borne to these blind 
ones, and of drawing them from the darkness in 
which they would always have lived, had not 
your Majesty, more devoted to the service of God 
and religion than to the government of your States, 
honored us with this pious task, while you labor 
successfully for the destruction of heresy. 

I implore of heaven, Sire, that the happiness 
which attends the justice of your actions, may 
crown such noble, grand and holy undertakings. 
These are the prayers and vows which all the 
Recollects of your kingdom offer to God at the 
foot of the Altars, and especially myself, who 
only desire to have the happiness of continuing 
to render your Majesty the service which I vowed 



EPISTLE. 47 

to you at the time of the Campaigns in Holland, 
where I had the happiness of following your 
sacred person as a missionary, my greatest passion 
being to worship my God, to serve my King and 
to give him marks of the zeal and the most 
profound respect with which I am, Sire, 

Your Majesty's most humble, most 
obedient and most faithful subject 
and servant. 

F, Louis Hennepin, 

Recollect Missionary. 



Extract From The Royal Privilege. 

By the grace and privilege of the King, given 
at Chaville, September 3d, 1682, signed by the 
King in his Council, Junquieres, it is permitted 
to the Widow of Sebastian Hure, late book- 
seller at Paris, to cause to be printed a book en- 
titled Description of Louisiana, a Country 
newly discovered in North America, composed 
by the Rev. Father Louis Hannepin, Recollect 
Missionary and Apostolic Notary, for the time 
and space of twenty consecutive years, to date 
from the day when the printing of said book is 
completed for the first time. And prohibition 
to all publishers and others to print, sell and cir- 
culate, under any pretext whatever, even of 
foreign edition or otherwise, without the con- 
sent of the said publisher or her representatives, 
under the penalty of 3,000 livres fine, payable 
without deposits, by each offender, confiscation 
of copies, counterfeits, and all expenses, damages 



4-9 

and interest, as is more amply set forth in said 
privilege. 

Registered on the book of the Community of 
Booksellers and Printers of Paris, September 
loth, 1682, according to the Arret of Parliament, 
April 8, 1653, and that of the King's Privy 
Council, Feb. 27, 1665. 

(Signed) Angot, Syndic. 

Printing for the first edition completed January 5th, 1683. 



DESCEIPTION 



OF 



NEWLY DISCOVERED SOUTHWEST OF NEW FRANCE, 
BY ORDER OF HIS MAJESTY. 



It is some years* since the Sieur Robert Cave- 
lier de la Salle was convinced from the informa- 
tion which he had derived from several Indians 
of various nations that important establishments 
might be made in a southwesterly direction, 
beyond the great lakes, and that even by means 
of a great river which the Iroquois call Hohio, 

* This is followed closely by the ••' Relation des descouvertes 
et des voyages du Sieur de la Salle, seigneur et gouverneur du 
fort de Frontenac, au dela des grands lacs de la Nouvelle 
France, faits par I'ordre de Monseigneur Colbert 1679-80-81.' 
Margry i, p. 435, etc. 



52 A DESCRIPTION 

which empties into Meschasipi, which in the 
language of the Islinois means great river,* one 
could penetrate even to the sea. 

With this design he purchased a house on the 
Island of Montreal, at the spot called la Chine, 
where they embark to ascend higher up along 
the great river St. Lawrence; he subsequently 
imparted his idea to Monsieur de Courcelles, 
Governor of New France, who found it well 
grounded, and who for this reason encouraged 
him to carry it out ; he made several voyages, 
sometimes with Frenchmen, sometimes with 
Indians, and even for a distance of a hundred 
leagues, to the end of Lake Frontenac with Mes- 
srs. Dolier and Galinee, priests of St. Sulpice, in 
the year 1669, but a violent fever compelled the 
latter to leave them as they entered Lake de 
Comty, and the former sometime afterwards were 
compelled by other unforeseen accidents to lay up 
among the Onttaouactz"}* and to return to Canada 

* The Relation in Margry gives none of these interpretations. 
It says : "some Indians call Ohio, others Mississipi." 
f Ottawas. 



OF LOUISIANA. 53 

without their having ever since dreamed of carry- 
ing out their first design, the Providence of God 
having thus permitted it and reserved it to the 
religions of our order.* 

The Sieur de Courcelles and the Sieur Talon, 
the very vigilant Intendant of New France, wrote 
urging him to continue his discoveries, and a 
favorable opportunity offered. 

After the Sieur Tracy sent by the King to 
Canada in 1665, had forced the Iroquois to sue for 
peace, he deemed it necessary in order to keep in 
check these savages, to erect some forts in the 
places by which the Iroquois had been accustomed 
to pass, in order to come and attack our settle- 
ments. With this view. Forts Sorel and Cham- 
bly were built on Richelieu river, which empties 
into the Saint Lawrence ; and some years later 
Fort Frontenac was erected one hundred and 
twenty leagues further South near the outlet of 

* P'or this expedition see Faillon, Histoire de la Colonic 
Fran^aise, 3 pp. 286-306, Dollier de Casson, Histoire de Mon- 
treal, pp. 198-9. An anonymous document in Margrv (i, p. 
377), misrepresents it most audaciously. See " Margry's La 
Salle Bubble Bursted." 



54 A DESCRIPTION 

Lake Frontenac or Ontario which means Beauti- 
ful Lake,* 

Thisf fort was sodded and surrounded by 
palisades and four bastions by the care of the 
Count de Frontenac, governor general of the 
country, to resist the Iroquois and this gallant 
nobleman for the ten years of his administration 
has made himself beloved, by the awe with which 
he inspired these savages, by planting Fort Fron- 
tenac which is situated within their country, and 
by this fortress he has revived in America the 
name of his ancestors, who were the favorites of 
one of our greatest Kings, Henry IV, and gover- 
nors of the castle of St. Germain en Laye, and 
without disparaging the Governors General who 
preceded him, this one has been the father of the 
poor, the protector of the oppressed, and a perfect 
model of piety and religion. Those who come 
after us in Canada will regret him and admire 

*Ontara, lake ; Ontario, beautiful lake. 

t This paragraph is not in Margry. The barracks near the 
western end of Cataraqui bridge, at Kingston, mark the site of 
the French fort. Parkman, p. 83. 



OF LOUISIANA. ^^ 

his wise administration and his zeal for the King's 
service in his perilous canoe voyages, on which 
this illustrious governor has often risked his life 
for the good and defense of the country.* 

The command of Fort Frontenac falling 
vacant, the Sieur de la Salle, who had experienced 
great difficulties in ascending the frightful falls 
and rapids, which are encountered for more than 
thirty leagues between Montreal and Fort Fron- 
tenac, resolved to come to France to solicit this 
post from the King. 

He arrived at Rochelle in i 675, f and offered 
to complete this fort at his own expense, and to 
maintain a sufficient garrison and as the Count 
de Frontenac had advanced more than 15000 
livres in establishing the fort and maintaining 
the garrison, he offisred besides to reimburse him, 
provided the Court would grant him, the gov- 
ernorship and ownership of the fort. His pro- 
posals were accepted by Mr. Colbert, who caused 

* Father Gabriel de la Ribourde, was the first Chaplain at 
Fort Frontenac, LeClercq, Etablissment de la Foi 2 p, 112. 

t Really in 1674. 



56 A DESCRIPTION 

the grants to be issued to him,* through the in- 
fluence of Mr. de BeUzani, who greatly aided 
this noble enterprize, and the establishments that 
will be formed hereafter will owe him this 
obligation. 

As soon as he had returned to Canada, the 
Count de Frontenac proceeded to the spot, to 
aid him in demolishing the first fort, which was f 
enclosed only by stout palisades and turf He 
erected another three hundred and sixty fathom 
in circumference, revested with four bastions of 
cut stone. They worked so diligently on it that 
it was brought to completion at the end of two 
years, although the Sieur de la Salle was not ob- 
liged to make so great an outlay. J 

This fort stands on the north side and near 
the outlet of Lake Frontenac on a peninsula, the 
isthmus of which he has dug through, the other 
three sides being surrounded by the lake and by 

* The rest of this paragraph not in Margry. See Le Clercq. 
Etablissement, 2 p. 117. The grant and patent of nobility are 
in N. Y. Colonial Documents, ix pp. 123-5. 

f Only 60 fathoms in circuit according to i Margry, i p. 437. 

I Compare Nouvelle Decouverte, pp. 30-2, 



OF LOUISIANA. 57 

a large harbor, where vessels of all kinds can 
anchor in safety. Lake Frontenac is eighty 
leagues long and twenty-live or thirty wide ; it 
abounds in fish, is deep and navigable in all parts. 
The five cantons of the Iroquois live mainly 
south of this same lake, and some of them on 
the north. 

The Count de Frontenac having gone several 
years in succession to the fort escorted by soldiers 
and by forty canoes, managed by men of great 
resolution in action, his presence has impressed 
fear and respect for the whole French nation on 
the mind of the haughtiest of these savages. He 
annually convened the most influential of the 
Iroquois in council, explaining to them the means 
they should adopt in order to embrace Christianity, 
exhorting them to hear the voice of the mis- 
sionaries, giving them the bias that they should 
take to entertain friendly relations with him, and 
to maintain trade with the French, whom after 
the mode of expression of the Indians, he called 
his nephews, and the Iroquois his children. It 



8 



A DESCRIPTION 



is by these methods that this wise governor has 
preserved peace as long as he has been in Canada, 
making presents to the Indians in favor of the 
Missionaries.* 

The situation of this fort is so advantageous, 
that by means of it, it is easy to cut off the Iro- 
quois on their raids or their return, or to carry 
the war into their country in twenty-fc ur hours, 
during the time that they are out on war parties, 
by means of barks from Fort Frontenac ; the 
Sieur de la Salle having built three, full decked, 
on the lake, has trained his men so well to manage 
canoes in the most frightful rapids, that they are 
now the most skillful canoemcn in America. 

As the land bordering on the lake is very fertile, 
he has cultivated several acres, where wheat, pulse 
and potherbs have succeeded very well, although 
the wheat was at first injured by grasshoppers, as 
generally happens in new clearings in Canada on 
account of the great humidity of the earth. He 
has raised poultry and horned cattle, of which he 
has now thirty-five head ; and as there are very 

* Briefly in Margry, i, p. 438. 



OF LOUISIANA. 59 

fine trees there fit for house and ship building, 
and the winter is nearly three months shorter 
than in Canada, there is reason to believe that a 
considerable colony will be formed, there being 
already thirteen or fourteen families and a mission* 
house which I built with our dear Recollect 
Father, Lake Buisset, with the help of Sieur de la 
Salle, whereby we have attracted a pretty large 
village of Iroquois, whose children we teach to 
read with our little French children, and they 
teach each other their language in turn. This 
maintains a good understanding with the Iro- 
quois, who clear the land in order to plant Indian 
corn so as to subsist all the year except the hunt- 
ing season. 

While the Sieur de la Salle was engaged in 
building his fort, men envious of him, judging 
by this fine beginning what he might be able to 
do in the sequel,f with our Recollect missionaries, 

* The rest of the paragraph is omittted in Margry's Relation. 
The Nouvelle D'ecouverte^ p. 24, speaks of building a chapel, but 
on p. 60 calls it as here a mission house. 

t To " fort " omitted by Margry. 



6o A DESCRIPTION 

who by their disinterested life, were attracting 
several families which came to settle at the Fort, 
put forward the Sieur Joliet to anticipate him in 
his discoveries. He went by the Bay of the 
Puants to the river Meschasipi, on which he 
descended to the Islinois, and returned by the 
Lakes to Canada, without having then or after- 
wards attempted to form any post * or made any 
report to the Court. 

At the end of the year 1678 f the Sieur de la 
Salle came to France to report to Monsieur Col- 
bert, what he had done to execute his orders; he 
then represented to him that this Fort Frontenac 
gave him great advantages for making discoveries 
with our Recollects, that his main object in build- 

* Rest of sentence omitted by Margry. Joliet did make a 
report to Frontenac, see the letter of the Count to Colbert. 
N. Y. Col. Doc, ix, p, 121. Joliet applied for a grant and 
was refused. Joliet knew of the Mississippi and the routes to 
it before La Salle, and as early as i66g advised him and the 
Sulpitians, Dollier de Casson and Galinee, to go by way of the 
Wisconsin. Margry i, p. 144. Faillon, Histoire, iii, p. 286. 

Hennepin here follows the general story of the La Salle party 
in regard to Joliet. 

t 1677, Margry, i, p. 439. 



OF LOUISIANA. 6l 

ing th'^t fort had been to continue these dis- 
coveries in rich, fertile and temperate countries, 
where the trade merely in the skins and wool of 
the wild cattle, which the Spaniards call Cibola, 
might establish a great commerce, and support 
powerful colonies ; that nevertheless, as it would 
be difficult to bring these cattle skins in canoes, 
he petitioned Monsieur Colbert to grant him a 
commission to go and discover the mouth of the 
great river Meschasipi, on which ships could be 
built to come to France; and that in view of the 
great expense that he had incurred chiefly for 
building and keeping up Fort Frontenac, he would 
deign to grant him the privilege of carrying on 
exclusively the trade in bufl^alo skins, of which 
he had brought one as a sample. This was 
granted him. 

He set out from France in the month of July 
in the year 1678 with the Sieurs la Motte * and 
Tonty, a pilot, sailors and several others, to the 
number of about thirty persons, anchors and rig- 

* La Motte omitted in Margry i, p. 439. Compare Le Clercq 
ii, p. 139. 



62 A DESCRIPTION 

ging for the barks which he intended to build, 
and the necessary arms and goods. At the close 
of September he reached Quebec, whence he 
sent on his men to transport the goods and pro- 
visions to Fort Frontenac. He brought* me 
from France an order from our Reverend Father 
Germain Allart, who is at present Bishop of 
Vence,*j" and letters from the Very Reverend 
Father Hyacinth le Fevre, now provincial of our 
Recollects in Artois, by which he manifested to 
me great zeal for the progress of our American 
missions^ and begged me to accompany the Sieur 
de la Salle in his discoveries. Father Valentine 
le Roux, our Commissary Provincial in Canada 
gave me a complete chapel for my voyage. I 
then went to obtain the blessing of Monsieur 
Francis de la Valle, first Bishop of Quebec, and 
his written sanction. J We then dined at the 

*This down to words ''Mission House" does not appear in the 
Margry Relation. 

t He held the see from 1681 to 1685. 

X Nouvelle Decouverte, p. 62. The Bishop's name is 
Francis de Laval de Montmorency. 



OF LOUISIANA. 63 

table of the Count de Frontenac Governor of the 
country, who during the repast did us the honor 
to say to the company that he would report to 
the court the zeal of the Recollects and the cour- 
age of our undertakings. 

We embarked to the number of three, in our 
little bark canoe with our portable chapel, a 
blanket and a rush mat which served as a bed. 
This composed our whole outfit. 

The people on the banks as we passed between 
Quebec and Monreal, earnestly begged me to 
say mass for them and administer the sacraments, 
explaining to me that they could be present at 
divine service only five or six times a year, inas- 
much as there were only four missionaries in a 
stretch of fifty leagues of country. At Saint 
Hour I baptized a child, giving notice to the 
missionary who was absent. We continued our 
route by Harpentinie* where the Seigneur of the 
place would have given me one of his sons for 
the voyage, if our canoe had been large enough 

* St. Ours, and Arpentigny. 



04 A DESCRIPTION 

for four men.* On my arrival at Monreal,-}- 
they debauched my canoemen from me, which 
compelled me to take advantage of the offer of 
two other canoeman who gave me a little corner in 
their frail vessel, and after surmounting the rapids 
for thirty leagues, we arrived at Fort Frontenac 
on All Souls' Day, 1678, at eleven o'clock at night. 
Father Gabriel de la Ribourde and Father Luke 
Buisset, missionaries, received me with extraordi- 
nary zeal in our Mission house. J The Sieur de 
la Salle arrived some time after us, as soon as he 
had completed his arrangements, and at the close 
of the same year he sent on fifteen of his men 
with goods to the amount of six or seven thous- 

* While at La Chine he gave rise to the affaire Roland^ an 
ecclesiastical case which embroiled Canada. See Margry i, pp. 

3»05 3131 315- 

■j" The Nouvelle Decouv. mentions his stopping at Three 
Rivers and officiating there, Oct i, p. 64. 

\ Nouvelle Decouv. p, 66. Le Clercq, Etablissement de la Foi, 
2 p. 1 14, adds that Father Hennepin, " made excursions among 
the Iroquois nations, attracted families to the fort and having 
perfected himself in the know^ledge of their language and 
the means of gaining them to God, labored several years there 
with fruit." He eulogizes Father Luke. 



OF LOUISIANA. 65 

and livres, with orders to proceed in canoes, and 
await us at the Islinois, who Hve in the neigh- 
borhood of Meschasipi, in order to begin by 
estabhshing there a good understanding with 
these Indians, and to prepare provisions and 
other things necessary for the continuation of 
our discoveries.* 

Wef had a conference with our two ReUgious 
at the Fort, on the measures necessary to be 
taken to extend the Kingdom of Jesus Christ 
among these numerous nations which had never 
heard the true God spoken of, or conversed with 
Europeans. 

On the 1 8th of November 1678 J I took leave 
of these Fathers, who accompanied us to the 
lake shore, and with sixteen men we entered a 

* Margry i, p. 440, says 7 or 8000. That Relation always 
writes Mississipi. 

f This down to " return to Fort Frontenac" is not in Margry. 
There is merely a brief statement of the sending of carpenters 
and other men under the direction of Sieur de la Motte and 
F. Louis Hennepin. Margry i, p. 440. The Nouv. Dec, p. 
68, amplifies. 

X Le Clercq ii, p. 141. 



66 A DESCRIPTION 

brigantine. The autumn winds and cold being 
then very violent, our men were afraid to embark 
in a craft of about ten tons. This obliged the 
Sieur de la Motte who commanded, to keep con- 
stantly along the north shore of Lake Frontenac 
so as to be sheltered from the Northwesters 
which would have driven us on the so uthern 
shore. On the 26th, our vessel being weather- 
bound two good leagues from land, we were 
compelled to anchor all night, with sixty 
fathoms of cable and in evident danger. At last 
the wind shifting from East to Northeast, we 
reached the upper end of Lake Frontenac at an 
Iroquois village called Teiaiagon, situated on the 
north about seventy leagues from Fort Frontenac* 
We bought some Indian corn of the Iroquois, 
who often came to visit us on our brigantine, 
which we had run up a river, "j' and placed safely, 
but we ran aground three times before we got 
in, and we were obliged to land fourteen of our 

* The Nouv. Decouv. p. 73 here gives Skannadano as the 
Iroquois name of the lake. 

■f" Le Clercq, Etablissement, de la Foi, ii, p. 141, This 
was the Humber. Marshall, Building of the Griffon, p. 257. 



OF LOUISIANA. 67 

men and throw our ballast overboard, to extricate 
ourselves. We were obliged to cut away with axes 
the ice that would have locked us in the river. 
As a suitable wind failed us, we could not pro- 
ceed till December 5th, 1678, and as we had fif- 
teen leagues passage to make from the land at 
the extremity of the lake to Niagara, we succeeded 
in making only ten leagues towards the southern 
shore, where we anchored about three leagues* 
from land, and were roughly tossed all night 
by the stormy weather. On the 6th, St. Nicho- 
las' day, we entered the beautiful river Niagara, 
which no bark had ever yet entered. After the 
Te Deum and ordinary prayers for thanksgiving, 
the Tsonnontouanj" Indians of the whole lit- 
tle village situated at the mouth of the river, 
with one draught of the seine, took more 
than three hundred white fish, larger than carp, 
which are of excellent taste, and the least inju- 
rious of all fishes in the world. These savages 
gave them all to us, ascribing their luck in fish- 
ing to the arrival of the great wooden canoe. 

* Four or five. Nouv, Decouv. p. 257. 
f Senecas. 



68 A DESCRIPTION 

On the seventh we ascended two leagues up 
the river in a bark canoe,* to seek a place 
suitable for building and being unable to go any 
higher up in a canoe, nor to surmount some very 
violent rapids, we proceeded to explore on land 
three leagues further, and finding no earth fit 
to cultivate, we slept near a river which flows 
from the west, one league above the great fall 
of Niagara. "j" There was a foot of snow, which 
we removed to build a fire, and the next day we 
retraced our steps. On our way we saw a great 
number of deer, and flocks of wild turkeys ; and 
after the first mass that had ever been celebrated 
in those places, the carpenters with other men 
were employed under the direction of the Sieur 
de la Motte, who was never able to endure the 
rigor of such a life of hardship. He was com- 
pelled to give up some time afterwards and return 
to Fort Frontenac.J 

* As far as the Mountain Ridge. Marshall, p. 258. 
t Chippewa Creek, lb. 

X Dec. II. Nouv. Decouv p. 76. He then continues, saying 
that the winds prevented their doing anything the three follow- 



OF LOUISIANA. 69 

The Sieur de la Salle not having been able to 
build a bark at Fort Frontenac on account of a 
portage of two leagues at the great Fall of Niag- 
ara, but for which, one might sail in a large bark 
from Lake Frontenac to the end of Lake Dau- 
phin, through lakes which may justly be styled 
Fresh Seas. 

The great river St. Lawrence takes its rise from 
several large lakes, among which there are five 
of extraordinary size and which are all badly 
portrayed on the printed maps. These lakes 
are, first, Lake Conde or Tracy ; second, Lake 
Dauphin or Islinois ; third. Lake Orleans or of 
the Hurons ; fourth. Lake Conty or Erie, and fifth 

ing days. The 15th the bark was towed up to the great rock, 
he steering. On the 17th a cabin of logs was made for a 
storehouse. The i8th and 19th they had to pour boih'ng water 
in the ground to drive posts in. From the 20 to 23d they were 
engaged in drawing the bark ashore to save it from the ice and 
Thomas Charpentier of Artois effected it. Marshall, p. 258, 
makes Lewiston the site of this cabin. The Great Rock since 
known as Hennepin's, though less conspicious and no longer 
separated from the bank by water is to be seen under the 
western end of the old Suspension Bridge, Marshall, p. 265. 



JO A DESCRIPTION 

Lake Ontario, called Frontenac* They are all 
of fresh water very good to drink, abound in fish, 
surrounded hy fertile lands, except the first. 
They are of easy navigation, even for large vessels, 
but difficult in winter on account of the high 
winds which prevail there. 

Lake Conde and Lake Dauphin are the most 
distant westward. The former which runs from 
East to West is one hundred and fifty leagues 
long, about sixty wide and about five hundred 
leagues in circuit. The latter which is situated 
to the north and south, is one hundred and twenty 
or one hundred and thirty in length, and forty to 
fifty leagues in width, and nearly four hundred 
leagues in circuit. These two lakes empty into 
that of Orleans, the former by a rapid full of 
rocks, which you cannot navigate and the other 
by the strait of Missilimakinac. Lake Orleans 

* Margry's Relation calls them simply, Lake Superior, Lake 
of the Islinois, Lake of the Hurons, Lake Erie and Lake Fron- 
tenac. i p. 440. They are described more at length in the 
Nouv. Decouv., p. 40, etc. He there calls them Lake Superior, 
Lake Illinois, Lake Huron, Lake Erie and Lake Frontenac or 
Ontario, Lake Illinois being the modern Michigan. 



OF LOUISIANA. 7 1 

empties by a long, very beautiful and navigable 
channel into Lake Conty, so that as these two latter 
lakes, are about equal to Lake Dauphin and are 
not separated from each other by any inconvenient 
rapid, you can sail by l-ark from the extremity of 
Lake Dauphin for a distance of four hundred 
leagues to the end of Lake Conty, where naviga- 
tion is interrupted by the great Fall of Niagara. 
Lake Conty empties into Lake Frontenac, 
but during ten leagues of this last lake it closes 
in* at a great island which forms two channels, 
and at some islets, and this narrowing in is called 
the Niagara River, which after a course of 
fourteen leagues empties into Lake Frontenac at 
40° 20' N. The waters of this strait, or of this 
part and river oi Lake Conty, have a current, and 
are very diffi :ult to ascend by sail, especially one 
league from its issue from Lake Conty. Four 
leagues from Lake Frontenac there is an incredi- 
ble Cataract or Waterfall, which has no equal. 
The Niagara river near this place is only the 
eighth of a league wide, but it is very deep in 

* " At a " to " islets " omitted by Margry. 



72 A DESCRIPTION 

places, and so rapid above the great fall, that it 
hurries down all the animals which try to cross 
it, without a single one being able to withstand its 
current. They plunge down a height of more than 
five hundred feet,* and its fall is composed of 
two sheets of water and a cascade, with an island 
sloping down. In the middle these waters foam 
and boil in a fearful manner. 

They thunder continually and when the wind 
blows in a southerly direction, the noise which 
they make is heard for from more than fifteen 
leagues. Four leagues from this cataract or fall, 
the Niagara river rushes with extraordinary 
rapidity especially for two leaguesf into Lake 

* Six hundred in Margry i, p, 441. Tonty in his Relation 
(Margry i, p. 577), estimates it at 500 The Nouvelle 

Decouv., has 600, p. 45. Charlevoix (iii, p. 233) supposed 
they counted the three ascents they had to make to reach the 
river above. Is may be too that this estimate is of the whole 
descent from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario, which is about 350 
feet. For Hennepin's fuller description, see Appendix. 

t As far as the Great Rock. Nouv. Dec, p. 45, It adds 
that in the second two leagues the impetuosity diminishes. 
Vessels from Lake Ontario could ascend to this rock which 
was in the river on the west side. 



OF LOUISIANA. 73 

Frontenac. It* is during these two leagues 
that goods are carried. There is a very fine road, 
very Httle wood, and almost all prairies mingled 
with some oaks and firs, on both banks of the 
river, which are of a height that inspire fear 
when you look down. 

It is at the mouth of Lake Frontenac, that a 
fort was begun, which might have been able to 
keep the Iroquois in check and especially the 
Tsonnontonans,"!" the most numerous and most 
powerful of all, and prevent the trade which they 
carry on with the English and Dutch, for quan- 
tities of furs which they are obliged to seek in 
the western countries, and pass by Niagara going 
and coming, where they might be stopped in a 
friendly way in time of peace, and by force in 
time of war ; but the Iroquois excited by some 
persons envious of the Sieur de la Salle, took 
umbrage, so that as they were not in a position 
to resist them, they contented themselves with 

* Not in Margry i, p. 442, down to " look down." 
f Tsonnontouans, that is, Senecas. 
9 



74 A DESCRIPTION 

building there a house defended by palisades, 
which is called Fort de Conty * and the place is 
naturally defensive, and beside it there is a very 
fine harbor for barks to retire to in security. 
There is also a very abundant fishery of several 
kinds of fish, among others of white fish, admira- 
bly good and with which you might supply one 
of the best cities in Europe. 

The great Fall of the River Niagara, compelled 
him also to build his bark two leagues above 
it, and six leagues from the mouth of this river. 
But "I" before beginning it, the Sieur de la Motte 
had orders to take his precautions and go to the 
great village of the Tsonnontouans Iroquois, to 
endeavor to dispel the umbrage which these en- 
vious men had already impressed on their minds, 
in regard to all our proceedings, and as I was 
laboring to build a cabin of the bark of trees 
which was to serve me as a house and chapel,^ to 

* After "palisades" omitted in Margry down to "Europe." 
The Nouv. Decouv., says that the fort was on the east side, 

p. 48. 

■j" The account of LaMotte and Hennepin's mission is given 
briefly in Margry i, 442-3. 

J Supply " I had orders." 



OF LOUISIANA. '] ^ 

say the same thing to our people. The Sieur de 
la Motte begged me to accompany him to the 
Iroquois, and during the whole time of his em- 
bassy ; I begged him to leave me with the greatest 
number of our men. He answered me that he 
was taking seven with him, that I knew some- 
thing of the language, and of the customs of the 
Iroquois, that these Indians had seen me at Fort 
Frontenac at the council which the Governor of 
the country had held with them ;* that the King's 
service required it, and the Sieur de la Salle's 
especially, that he could not trust those whom he 
was taking. All these reasons compelled me to 
follow himf through the woods, on a march of 
thirty-two leagues, over ground covered with 

* Hennepin has already said that Frontenac went up to 
Fort Frontenac with La Salle. This may have been in 1677, 
as he was there in September (Margry i, p. 296;) but we 
have no details of any council. 

f Tonty mentions Hennepin's accompanying la Motte, Re- 
lation ecrite de Quebec 14 Nov., 1684, Margry i, p. 576. 
Margry oddly misprints embuscade for ambassade. Tonty's 
Memoir is so brief as to all this that we need not refer to it. 
See translation in French's Louisiana Hist. Coll. i, p. 52. 



76 A DESCRIPTION 

snow. We all carried our blankets with our little 
equipage, often passing the night in the open air, 
and as we had only some little bags of roast 
Indian corn, we met on the way Iroquois hunters 
who gave us some venison and fifteen or sixteen 
black squirrels very good to eat. After five days 
march we arrived at Tegarondies,* a great village 
of the Tsonnontoiians Iroquois, and as our French- 
men were then well supplied with arms and fine 
clothes, the Indians led us to the cabin of the 
great chief where all the women and children 
came to look at us, and after the cries made in 
the village by a sachem, according to the maxim 
of the Indians, the next day after the mass and 
sermon of New Year's Day, 1679,-j- forty-two 
Iroquois old men appeared in the council with us, 
and although these Indians who are almost all 
large men, were merely wrapped in robes of 
beaver or wolf skins, and some in black squirrel 

* On Boughton Hill near Victor in Ontario Co., JVIarshall, 
Building of the Griffon, p. 260. New York Col. Doc, iii, 
p. 251. 

t Nouv. Decouv., p. 81 says he preached in the little bark 
chapel, Fathers Gamier and Rafeix, being present. 



OF LOUISIANA. 77 

skins, often with a pipe in the mouth, no senator 
of Venice ever assumed a graver countenance or 
spoke with more weight than the Iroquois sachems 
in their assemblies. 

One of our men named Anthony Brassart who 
served as interpreter, told them that we came to 
visit them in the name of Onnontio (which is 
the name that all the Indians give the Gover- 
nors of the French), and to smoke their calumets 
on their mat ; that the Sieur de la Salle, their 
friend, was going to build a great wooden canoe, 
to go and seek goods in Europe by a shorter way 
than that by the rapids of the St. Lawrence, in 
order to supply them with them at a cheaper rate. 
He added several other reasons* to facilitate our 
enterprise and we gave them in the name of the 
whole nation, about four hundred livres worth of 
goods according to the usage of this country, 
where the best reasons are never listened to, if 
they are not accompanied by presents. 

The Sieur de la Motte before beginning the 

* They promised to keep a blacksmith and armorer at 
Niagara to mend their guns and aj{es. Nouv. Decouv. p. 84. 



78 A DESCRIPTION 

speech told the Iroquois, that he would not speak 
to them till they had caused a Frenchman* who 
was suspicious to him, to leave the council. The 
old men begged him to withdraw and that he 
should not receive the whole affront, for having 
presented himself at an assembly to which he had 
not been invited, I went out with him to keep 
him company, dispensing myself on the first day 
from the matters laid before the Iroquois. The 
following day the Iroquois replied to our pre- 
sents, article by article. They put little sticks on 
the ground to recollect all that had been told them, 
and at each reply the maker of the harangue held 
one of the little sticks in his hand, and threw down 
to us in the midst of the assemblage, some white 
and black wampum, which was strung ; and at 

* The Nouvelle Decouv. says that this was the Jesuit Father 
Garnier, and that Hennepin left to show the Sieur de la Motte 
that he had no business to bring him to the Council when he 
intended to offer an affront of that kind to a Jesuit missionary 
" who was among these Indians only to instruct them in the 
truths of the gospel," p. 86. LaMotte in a letter (Margry ii, p. 
9), gives a brief account of what he did. La Salle complains 
of La Motte's unfaithfulness and appeals to Hennepin, 
Margry ii, p. 230. 



OF LOUISIANA. 79 

each present from the first to the last, one of the 
sachems having begun at the top of his voice, all 
together ended the last syllable three times by a 
tone coming from the very pit of the stomach, 
"Niaova," which means, "See, that is good, I 
thank you.' 

All the reasons that we gave the Iroquois, sat- 
isfied them only in appearance, for entire in- 
difference to everything is a maxim with these 
Indians; and a man among them would pass for 
an ill regulated mind, if he did not agree to every- 
thing, and if he contradicted the arguments made 
to them in council ; even though one should go 
so far as to utter the greatest absurdities and non- 
sense, they will always say " Niaova." " See 
that is right my brother, you are right," but they 
believe only what they please in private. The 
greatest part of the Indians, of all those whom I 
have examined carefully, show that the indiffer- 
ence which they entertain for all the maxims of 
our Christian religion, as for everything else is 
the greatest obstacle to the faith which I have 
known among these Savages, 



8o A DESCRIPTION 

On the last day of our assembly, the Iroquois 
warriors brought in a slave whom they had taken 
from the Hontouagaha, which signifies in their 
language the Stammerers or great talkers;* and 
I think that the Neros and Maximins have never 

* Ontwagannha from Atwagannen, to speak a foreign 
language, Bruyas, Racines Agnieres p. 40 ; French Mk. Dicty. 
It is applied to the Maskoutens, Rel. 1660, p. 7; to the Shawnees 
Rel. 1672, p. 25; and is now the Mohawk term for the 
Ottawas, Mr. Marcoux in Hist. Mag. iv, p. 369. 

In the Nouv. Decouv. p. 90, he mentions a second prisoner. 
" The other was of the nation of the Ganniessinga near whom 
there were Enghsh Recollect missionaries. The Iroquois spared 
the latter." No Franciscan mission in Maryland of that date 
was known till recently. I showed this to the Very Rev. 
Pamphilo de Magliano, Provincial of the Recollects in this 
country as a specimen of Hennepin's misstatements. In a visit 
to Europe he discovered some documents of the old Franciscan 
province in England, including the record of the annual chapters 
and they showed the sending of missionaries of the order to 
Maryland from Oct. 1672 to Sept. 1720. Facts that have 
since came to light convince me that the Franciscans extended 
their labors into Pennsylvania, and that Hennepin was correct. 
Up to this point Hennepin's narrative is of what Hennepin saw 
and La Salle did not see. To pretend as Margry does that the 
La Salle Relation, he gives, is the original and that Hennepin 
plagiarized from a man who did not see, an account of what he 
himself did see, is about as absurd an idea as ever entered the 
mind of man. 



OF LOUISIANA. 8 I 

found out greater cruelty to exercise the patience 
of the martyrs, than the torments which the 
Iroquois make their enemies undergo. And as 
we saw that their children each cut a bit of flesh 
from the prisoner, whom their parents had put 
to death with unheard of cruelties, and that these 
little cannibals ate the flesh of this man before 
our eyes, we withdrew from the chiefs cabin, 
and would no longer eat there, and we retraced 
our steps across the forests to the Niagara river. 
The Sieur de la Salle * had come there in a 
bark from Fort Frontenac to bring us some pro- 
visions, and rigging to equip a vessel at the en- 
trance of Lake Conty ; but that in which he 
had come with merchandize, was wrecked by 
the fault of two opposing pilots on the south 
shore of Lake Frontenac, ten leagues from Nia- 
gara, near a place which the sailors have named 
"Cap Enrage."! They succeeded in saving the 

* Margry i, p. 442, gives this more briefly. Hennepin, 
Nouv. Decouv. p. 92, says that La Motte and he reached their 
cabin at Niagara Jan 14, and on the 20th he heard La Salle's 
voice on the bank on which he was. 

t Mr. Marshall thinks Cap Enrage to be Thirty Mile 
Point. 



82 A DESCRIPTION 

anchors and cables of the vessel. He also lost 
some canoes with a good deal of merchandize, 
and had several reverses, which frequently would 
have made any one but him, abandon the under- 
taking.* 

After he had given his orders and transferred 
the workmen to the shipyard, which was above 
the great Fall of Niagara, j- in order to build a 

* He adds here in the Nouv, Decouv. p. 94, that La Salle 
told them that he had visited the Senecas before the loss of his 
bark and had gained their consent to his enterprise. This is 
confirmed by Tonty in Margry i, p. 576, although in the Rela- 
tion which we are asked to accept as La Salle's, this personal 
fact is omitted. According to Tonty La Salle landed in a canoe 
at the mouth of the river of the Senecas, went to their village 
and then kept on by land to the Niagara. La Salle in a letter 
(Margry ii, p. 35) mentions his visit to the Senecas. 

f The site of the stocks where the Griffin was built was 
fixed at various points by Bancroft, Sparks, Cass, Schoolcraft 
and others. O. H. Marshall examining the matter by the 
light of documents and topography, decides it to have been at 
the mouth of Cayuga creek, on the American side. Building 
of the Griffon, p. 264, Hennepin says in the Nouv, Dec. p. 
94. *'The fort we were building at Niagara began to advance; 
but there was so much underhand work that this fort became an 
object of suspicion to these Indians. We had to suspend its 
erection for a time, and we contented ourselves with building a 



OF LOUISIANA. 83 

second bark, being anxious, he returned to Fort 
Frontenac. He undertook this march of more 
than eighty leagues by land and on foot, with a 
little bag of roast Indian corn, and that even 
failed him two days march from the fort, where 
nevertheless he arrived safely, with a dog which 
dragged his little baggage over the ice. J 

The greater part of the Iroquois had gone to 

house there surrounded by palisades." (This was at the foot 
of the mountain ridge on the side of Lewiston). " On the 226 
(Jany. 1679), we proceeded to a point two leagues above the 
great falls of Niagara. There we put up stocks to build the 
vessel we needed for our voyage. We could not construct it in 
a more convenient place than near a river, which descended 
into the strait, which is between Lake Erie and the great 
fall." The mouth of Cayuga creek is five miles above the falls 
on the American side, and being covered by an island is well adapted 
for ship building and has been so used by our government. Fran- 
quelin's maps of 1688, and 1689, note the spot on the American 
side just above the falls. " Cabane ou le Sr. de la Salle a fait 
faire une barque." " Chantier oii le Sr. de la Salle a ft. fre. une 
barque," Marshall p. 268. Hennepin adds in the Nouv. Dec, 
that the keel was all ready on the 26th, and that La Salle 
wished him to drive the first bolt, but he modestly declined. 

I He was accompanied to Lake Ontario by Tonty and set 
out after laying out the plan of Fort Conty at the mouth 
of the river Feb. i. Tonty in Margry i, p. 577. In the 
Nouv. Decouv. p. 96, Hennepin says he accompanied him. 



84. A DESCRIPTION 

war beyond Lake Conty during the construction 
of our bark, but although their absence ren- 
dered those who remained, less insolent, never- 
theless, they did not fail to come frequently to 
our shipyard, where they were working on the 
vessel, and to manifest their displeasure, but one 
of them pretending to be drunk wished to kill 
the blacksmith, but the resistance of the French 
^and the preparations which they made to repulse 
the Iroquois, and the reproach which I made to 
these savages, compelled them to withdraw 
quietly. Some time after a woman warned us 
that they wished to set the bark on fire on the 
stocks, and they would have done so, had we not 
kept a very strict watch. 

These frequent alarms, fear of running out of 
provisions, after the loss of the bark from Fort 
Frontenac, and the refusal of the Tsonnontouans 
Iroquois to give us Indian corn on our paying 
for it, astonished our carpenters,* who were 

* Down to *' our subsistance " not in Margry which says 
*' They would infallibly have deserted if the Sieur de la Salle 
and Father Louis had not taken care to reassure them and en- 
couraged them to work with greater diligence to shake off this 
uneasiness." 



OF LOUISIANA. 85 

moreover suborned and solicited to leave us, by 
a dissolute fellow who had made several attempts 
to go over to the Dutch. He would beyond 
doubt have seduced our workmen, if I had not 
reas-ured them, by the exhortations I made them, 
after divine service on holidays and Sundays, show- 
ing them that our enterprise had in view purely 
God's glory, the good of the French colony and 
their honor ; in this way I animated them to 
labor more diligently to banish these disquiets. 
Moreover the orders which they saw me give the 
Indians of the Wolf* nation to supply us with 
deer for our subsistance, made them pick up 
courage again, so that by applying themselves 
with more assiduity to their work, our bark 
was in a short time ready to be launched, and 
having blessed it with the ceremonies prescribed 
by the Church, it was launched into the water, 
although it was not yet entirely finished, in order 
to secure it from the fire with which it was 
threatened."}" 

* Mohegans. 

■j" Nouv. Decouv., pp. 96-9. 



86 A DESCRIPTION 

It was named the Griffin.* We fired three 
salutes with our cannons, and sang the Te Deum 
in thanksgiving, which was followed by several 
" Vive le Roy." 

The Iroquois who stood wondering at this 
ceremony, shared in our rejoicing. A glass of 
brandy was given to all of them to drink, as well 
as to the French. 

From this time we left our bark cabins to 
lodge in the vessel on water, where we slept in 
repose, and safe from insults of the Indians. The 
Iroquois on returning from their beaver hunt 
were extremely surprised. They said that the 
French were spirits "j" and they could not under- 
stand how they had been able to build in so short 
a time and with such ease so large a wooden 

* " In allusion to the arms of the Count de Frontenac which 
have griffins as supporters." Nouv. Decouv., p. 99, which adds 
" moreover the Sieur de la Salle had often said of this vessel 
that he wished to make the griffin soar above the crows." 

f Otkon in the Nouv. Decouv. Hennepin derives his Iro- 
quois mainly from Bruyas' Racines Agnieres, and makes 
the Senecas use the Mohawk dialect. See Marshall, p. 278, 
Parkman, Discovery, p. 123. 



OF LOUISIANA. Sj 

canoe, although this vessel was only of about 
forty-five tons and which we might call an am- 
bulant fort, and which made all the Indians 
tremble, who extend over more than five hundred 
leagues of country.* 

Meanwhile the envious seeing the bark fin- 
ished, notwithstanding the difficulty of trans- 
porting the rigging across so many rapids and the 
opposition of the Iroquois, published that it was 
a rash enterprise, that we would never return, 
and many other things of the kind. By this 
talk they roused up all the Sieur de la Salle's 
creditors, who without consenting to await his 
return, and without warning him, seized all 
his property that he had in Montreal and in 
Quebec, even to his secretary's bed, and they had 
it adjudged to them at such price as they chose, 
although Fort Frontenac of which he is 
proprietor was alone enough to pay all his debts 
twice told and more. 

§ The Margry Re], give all this briefly omitting the blessing 
of the vessel and even its name, which La Salle would scarcely 
do. Hennepin in his Nouv. Dec, p, loi, here states that 
Tonty took offense at his keeping a journal and tried to seize it. 



88 A DESCRIPTION 

He was then at Fort Frontenac, where he 
received tidings of these disorders, but as he 
deemed this misfortune past help, and that they 
had no other design than to compel him to forego 
an expedition, of which he had made the pre- 
parations with such pains and cost, he gave what 
orders he deemed necessarv at the fort.* 

Our boat being in the water out of reach of 
insult, I proceeded to the fort by Lake Frontenac, 
in the little brigantine f in order to rejoin our 

* The Margry relation instead of the following merely states 
that La Salle returned to Niagara early in August, 1679, 1" 
the Nouv. Dec, Hennepin here claims to have twice ascended 
the Niagara to Lake Erie in a canoe, p. 102. 

f Tonty says he sent Father Hennepin with 11 men. Margry, 
I p. 578. Hennepin in the Nouv. Dec. p. 104, says he went 
with the Sieur Charon, a Canadian. They descended the 
Niagara in a canoe making a portage at the falls. At the 
mouth of the river they embarked in the brigantine under the 
Sieur de la Forest. They took on board a number of Indian 
women and ran along to Aoueguen where they bought beaver 
skins for liquor, then ran across to Kente and landed on Gull 
Island, Le Clercq, Etablissement de la Foy, 2 p. 145, says that 
the Commissary of the Recollects went up to Fort Frontenac, 
to organize the projected mission, and made F. Gabriel de la 
Ribourde, Superior, stationing F. Luke Buisset at Fort Fron- 
tenac, F. Melithon Watteau at Niagara. 



OF LOUISIAiSTA. oQ 

Recollects who resided there, in order to enjoy 
spiritual consolation with them, obtain wine for 
the celebration of masses, and make the Sieur de 
la Salle a report of affairs, and we proceeded with 
him,* we three Recollect missionaries, to Niagara, 
in the beginning of the month of August in the 
same year, 1679. He found his bark ready to 
sail, but his people told him that they had not 
been able to make it ascend beyond the entrance 
of Lake Conty, not having been able to stem with 
sails the strong current of Niagara river.f We 

* The Nouv. Decouv. mentions La Salle's assembling 
the missionaries, Hennepin, Ribourde, Membre and Watteau, 
May 27, 1679, and his grant of land for their residence and ceme- 
tery. They reached the Niagara July (June) 30. 

Tonty confirms this. Margry i, p. 578. The Nouv. Decouv. 
says they found the Griffin anchored a league from Lake Erie, 
p. 112. 

f The Nouvelle Dec. goes into details, describing the 
vessel with its flag bearing a Griffin and an Eagle above it. 
He returned to Lake Ontario July, 16-17, ^"*^ ^^^ ^^^^ ^''^"^ 
Frontenac went up to the Great Rock, where the portage was 
made. All the anchors, rigging and arms were carried around 
the falls. Father Gabriel toiled up the rocky path in spite of 
his age and with Hennepin and La Salle visited the falls. La 
10 



90 A DESCRIPTION 

embarked to the number of thirty-two persons, 
with our two Recollect Fathers who had come 
to join me, our people having laid in a good 
supply of arms, merchandise, and seven small iron 
cannon. 

At last, contrary to the pilot's opinion we suc- 
ceeded in ascending Niagara river. He made 
his bark advance by sails when the wind was 
strong enough, and he had it towed in the most 
difficult places, and thus we happily reached the 
entrance of Lake Conty. 

We made sail the 7th of the month of August, 
in the same year 1679, steering west by south. 
AfterJ the " Te Deum " we fired all the cannon 
and wall pieces, in presence of several Iroquois 
warriors who were bringing in prisoners from§ 

Salle tried to make Hennepin acknowledge having criticized the 
Jesuits, pp. 1 1 2-6, La Salle set men to clear ground near his 
post for cultivation, Father Melithon Watteau was left as 
chaplain. Divine service was offered on the Griffin, the people 
joining in from the shore, pp. 118-9. 

I Rest of the paragraph not in Margry. 

§ Tintonha, that is to say the Nation of the Prairies, Nouv. 
Dec. p. 120. 



OF LOUISIANA. 9 1 

the nations on the prairies, situated more than five 
hundred leagues from their country, and these 
savages did not neglect to give a description of 
the size of our vessel to the Dutch of New York,* 
with whom the Iroquois carry on a great trade in 
furs, which they carry to them in order to obtain 
fire arms and goods to clothe themselves. 

Our voyage was so fortunatef that on the 
morning of the tenth day, the feast of Saint 
Lawrence, we reached the entrance of the De- 
troit (strait) by which Lake Orleans empties into 
Lake Conty, and which is one hundred leagues 
distant from Niagara river. This strait is thirty 
leagues long and almost everywhere a league wide, 
except in the middle where it expands and forms 
a lake of circular form, and ten leagues in diame- 

* See Andros to Blathwayt, N. Y. Col. Doc. iii, 278. 

t The Nouv. Dec. says they ran 20 leagues the first night. 
On the 8th, 45 leagues, almost always in sight of land, the lake 
being 15 or 16 leagues wide. He mentions three points running 
out into the lake, the first and largest of which he named St. 
Francis (Long Point, Marshall, p. 280). On the 9th they 
passed the other two points and saw an island at the mouth of 
the strait, seven or eight leagues from the north shore, pp. 121-2 



92 A DESCRIPTION 

ter, which we called Lake St. Clare, on account 
of our passing through it, on that Saint's day. 

The country on both sides of this beautiful 
strait is adorned with fine open plains, and you 
can see numbers of stags, does, deer, bears, by no 
means fierce and and very good to eat, poules d'inde * 
and all kinds of game, swans in abundance. Our 
guys were loaded and decked with several 
wild animals cut up, which our Indian and our 
Frenchmen killed. The rest of the strait is cov- 
ered with forests, fruit trees like walnuts, chest- 
nuts, plum and apple trees, wild vines loaded with 
grapes, of which we made some little wine. 
There is timber fit for building. Itf is the place 
in which deer most delight. 

We found the current at the entrance of this 
strait as strong as the tide is before Rouen. We 
ascended it nevertheless, steering north and north- 
east, as far as Lake Orleans. There is little 
depth as you enter and leave Lake St. Clare, 

* These are not hen turkeys, as some have rendered it, nor 
prairie hens, but evidently w^ater fowl. Charlevoix iii, p. 156; 
Lemoine, Ornithologie du Canada, p. 75. 

f This sentence not in Margry. The Nouv. Dec, says he 
tried to induce La Salle to establish a post here. 



OF LOUISIANA. 93 

especially as you leave it. The discharge from 
Lake Orleans divides at this place into several 
small channels, almost all barred by sand- 
banks. We were obliged to sound them all, 
and at last discovered a very fine one, with a 
depth of at least two or three fathoms of water, 
and* almost a league wide at all points. Our 
bark was detained here several days by head 
winds and this difficulty having been surmounted, 
we encountered a still greater one at the entrance 
of Lake Orleans, the north wind which had been 
blowing some time rather violently, and which 
drives the waters of the three great lakes into the 
strait, had so increased the ordinary current there, 
that it was as furious as the bore is before Caude- 
bec.f We could not stem it under sail, although 
we were then aided by a strong south wind ; 
but as the shore was very line, we landed twelve 
of our men who towed it along the beach for 

* Here Margry inserts " beyond the sand bars." 

f Gravier refers to this mention of Caudebec as a proof that 
Hennepin took his matter from La Salle's Report, Decouvertes 
et Etablissements p. 104, as though Hennepin publishing at 
Paris could not refer to a French river. 



94 A DESCRIPTION 

half a quarter of an hour, at the end of which 
we entered Lake Orleans* on the 23d of the 
month of August, and for the second time we 
chanted a Te Deum in thanksgiving, blessing 
God, who here brought us in sight of a great bayf 
in this lake, where our ancient Recollects had 
resided to instruct the Hurons in the faith, in the 
first landing of the French in Canada, and these 
Indians once very numerous have been for the 
most part destroyed by the Iroquois. J 

The same day the bark ran along the east coast 
of the lake, with a fair wind, heading north by 
east, till evening when the wind having shifted 
to southwest with great violence, we headed 
northwest, and the next day we found ourselves 
in sight of land, having crossed by night a great 
bay, called Sakinam,§ which sets in more than 
thirty leagues. 

On the 24th we continued to head northwest 

* Margry omits from here to " Iroquois." 

f Georgian Bay. 

X Nouv. Dec. pp. 128-9. 

§ Saginaw Bay. 



OF LOUISIANA. 95 

till evening, when we were becalmed among some 
islands, where there was only a fathom and a half 
or two fathoms of water. We kept on with the 
lower sails a part of the night to seek an anchor- 
age, but finding none where there was a good 
bottom and the wind beginning to blow from the 
west, we headed north so as to gain deep water 
and wait for day, and we spent the night in 
sounding before the bark, because we had 
noticed that our pilot was very negligent, and we 
continued to watch in this way during the rest 
of the voyage. 

On the 25th the calm continued till noon, and 
we pursued our course to the northwest, favored 
by a good southerly wind, which soon changed 
to southwest. At midnight we were compelled 
to head north on account of a great Point which 
jutted out into the lake ; but we had scarcely 
doubled it, when we were surprised by a furious 
gale, which forced us to ply to windward with 
mainsail and foresail, then to lie to till daylight. 

On the 26th the violence of the wind obliged 
us to lower the topmasts, to fasten the yards at 



g6 A DESCRIPTION 

the clew, to remain broadside to the shore. At 

noon the waves running too high, and the 

sea too rough, we were forced to seek a port in 

the evening, but found no anchorage or shelter. 

At this * crisis, the Sieur de la Salle entered the 

cabin, and quite disheartened told us that he 

commended his enterprise to God. We had 

been accustomed all the voyage to induce all to 

say morning and evening prayers together on our 

knees, all singing some hymns of the church, 

but as we could not stay on the deck of the 

vessel, on account of the storm, all contented 

themselves with making an act of contrition. 

There was no one but our pilot alone, whom we 

were never able to persuade. 

At this time the Sieur de la Salle adopted in 
union with us Saint Anthony of Padua as the pro- 
tector of our enterprises and he promised God if 
He did us the grace to deliver us from the 
tempest, that the first chapel he should erect in 
Louisiana should be dedicated to that great Saint. 
The wind having fallen a little we lay to, all 
* Down to "great Saint" not in Margry, i, p. 447. 



OF LOUISIANA. 97 

the night and we drifted only a league or two at 
most. 

On the morning of the 27th we sailed north- 
west with a southwest wind, which changed 
towards evening into a light southeast trade wind, 
by favor of which we arrived on the same day at 
Missilimakinac,* where we anchored in six fathoms 
of water in a bay, where there was a good bottom 
of potter's clay. This bay is sheltered from south- 
west to north, a sand bank covers it a little on 
the northeast,-}- but it is exposed to the south 
which is very violent.^ 

Missilimakinac is a point of land at the entrance 
and north of the strait, by which Lake Dauphin 

* Derived according to Bishop Baraga, Diet., p. 243, from 
Mishinimakinago, a set of men in the woods, who are heard 
but seldom seen. 

f Northwest, Nouv. Decouv. 

J The bay where the Griffin anchored is that which is over- 
looked by the Buttes, two steep and rocky bluffs famous in 
Indian tradition and worshiped by the Indians who called them 
the He and She Rabbit. The former is also styled Sitting 
Rabbit or Rabbit's Back, Wabos Namadabid. The Kiskakons 
Ottawas were here in 1677 and their chapel is mentioned, Rel., 
1673-9, pp. 42, 56. Very Rev. E. Jacker, 



9^ A DESCRIPTION 

empties into Lake Orleans. This strait is a league 
wide and three long, and runs west northwest.* 
Fifteen leagues east of Missilimakinac you find 
another point which is at the entrance of the 
channel by which Lake Conde empties into 
Lake Orleans. This channel has an opening of 
five leagues, and is fifteen in length. It is inter- 
spersed with several islands, and gradually narrows 
in down to Sault Sainte Marie, which is a rapid 
full of rocks, by which the waters of Lake Conde 
are discharged and are precipitated in a violent 
manner. Nevertheless f they succeed in poling 
canoes up one side near the land, but for greater 
security a portage is made of the canoe and the 
goods which they take to sell to the nations north 
of Lake Conde. 

There are Indian villages in these two places; 
those who are settled at Missilimakinac, on the 

* Nouv. Dec, p. 133, has simply "west." 

f These sentences not in Margry, i, p. 448, with what 
follows down to " hollowed out by fne." The Nouv. Decouv., 
adds : Those settled at the Point of Land of Michilimakinak 

are Hurons, and the others who are five or six arpents 
beyond are called the Outtaoiiactz. 



OF LOUISIANA. 99 

day of our arrival, which was August 26th, 1678,* 
were all amazed to see a ship in their country, 
and the sound of the cannon caused an extraordi- 
nary alarm. We went to the Outtaoiiactz to say 
mass and during the service, the Sieur de la Salle, 
very well dressed in his scarlet cloak trimmed 
with gold lace, ordered the arms to be stacked 
along the chapel f and the sergeant left a sentry 
there to guard them. '1 he chiefs of the Outtaiio- 
actz paid us their civility in their fashion, on 
coming out of the church. And in this bay 
where the Griffin was riding at anchor, we looked 
with pleasure at this large well equipped vessel, 
amid a hundred or a hundred and twenty bark 
canoes coming and going from taking white fish,t 

* Nouv. Dec, says 28th August, 1679. 

f Which was covered with bark, Nouv. Dec, p. 195. 
This chapel is evidently not the mission church, nor the bark 
chapel dedicated to St. Francis Borgia, erected in 1677, between 
the Kiskakons and the new Ottawa village. Relation 1673-9, 
pp. 58-9, but the chapel at the Kiskakon village near the Rabbit 
Buttes. Tonty in Margry, i, p. 579, mentions the two 
churches. The positions of all these points has been made a 
special study by the careful antiquarian V. Rev. E. Jacker. 

X And trout of 50 or 60 pounds, Nouv. Dec, p. 135. 



lOO A DESCRIPTION 

which these Indians catch with nets, which they 
stretch sometimes in fifteen or twenty fathoms 
of water, and without which they could not 
subsist. 

The Hurons who have their village surrounded 
by palisades twenty-five feet high and situated * 
near a great point of land opposite the island of 
Missilimakimac, proved the next day that they 
were more French than the Outtaoiiactz, but it 
was in show, for they gave a salute by discharging 
all their guns, and they all have them, and renewed 
it three times, to do honor to our ship, and to the 
French, but this salute had been suggested to 
them by some Frenchmen, who come there, and 
who often carry on a very considerable trade with 
these nations, and who designed to gain the Sieur 
de la Salle by this show, as he gave umbrage 
to them, only in order better to play their 
parts subsequently by making it known that the 
bark was going to be the cause of destruction 

* Very advantageously on an eminence. lb., Pointe St. 
Ignace. The Nouv. Dec, p. 135, erroneously makes more 
than one Huron village. 



OF LOUISIANA. lOI 

to individuals, in order to render the one who 
had built her odious to the people. 

The Hurons and the Ouattaoiiactz form 
alliances with one another in order to oppose with 
one accord the fury of the Iroquois, their sworn 
enemy. They cultivate Indian corn on which 
they live all the year, with the fish which they 
take to season their sagamity. This they make 
of water and meal of their corn which they crush 
with a pestle in a trunk of a tree hollowed out 
by fire. 

The Indians of Sainte Marie du Long Sault are 
called by us the Saulteurs on account of the place of 
their abode, which is near the Sault, and where 
they subsist by hunting stags, moose or elk, and 
some beaver, and by the fishing of white fish, 
which is very good, and is found there in great 
abundance, but this fishery is very difficult to all 
but these Indians who are trained to it from 
childhood. These latter do not plant any Indian 
corn as their soil is not adapted to it, and the fogs 
on Lake Conde which are very frequent, stifle all 
the corn that they might be able to plant. 



I02 A DESCRIPTION 

Sault St. Marie and Missilimackinac are the 
two most important passes for all the Indians of 
the west and north who go to carry all their furs 
to the French settlements and to trade every year 
at Montreal with more than two hundred loaded 
canoes.* 

During our stay at Missilmakinac, we were 
extremely surprised to find there the greater part 
of the men whom the Sieur de la Salle had sent 
on ahead to the number of fifteen, and whom he 
believed to be long since at the Illinois. Those 
whom he had known as the most faithful, re- 
ported to him that they had been stopped by the 
statements made to them on their way at Missili- 
makinac ; that they had been told that his enter- 
prise was only chimerical, that the bark would 
never reach Missilimakinac, that he was sending 
them to certain destruction, and several other 
things of the kind, which had discouraged and 
seduced most of their comrades, and that they 
had been unable to induce them to continue their 

* Sentence not in Margry. 



OF LOUISIANA. 163 

voyage ; that six of them * had even deserted and 
carried oil' more than 3,000 livres worth of goods, 
under the pretext of paying themselves, saying 
that they would restore the surplus over what 
was due them, and that the others had stupidly 
wasted more than twelve hundred livresf worth, 
or spent it for their support at Missilimakinac, 
where they had been detained, and where provis- 
ions are very dear. 

The Sieur de la Salle was all the more pro- 
voked at this conduct of his men, as he had 
treated them well, and made some advances to 
all, among the rest having paid on account of 
one of them 1200 livresj that he owed various 
persons at Montreal. He had four of the most 
guilty arrested without giving them any harsher 
treatment. Having learned that two of the six§ 
deserters were at Sault Sainte Marie, he detached 

* Named Sainte Croix, Minime, le Barbier, Poupait, Hu- 

naut and Roussel dit la Rousseliere, Margry, i, p. 449. 
t Margry gives the amounts 4000 liv., 1300 liv. 

X La Rousseliere, 1800 liv. Margry, i, 449. 

§ Hunaut and la Rousseliere, lb. 



i04 A DESCRIPTION 

the Sieur de Tonty with six men who arrested 
them and seized all the goods which they had in 
their hands, but he could not obtain any justice 
as to the others. The* high winds at this season 
long retarded the return of the Sieur de Tonty, 
who did not reach Missilimakinac till the month 
of November, so that we were dreading the ap- 
proach of winter and resolved to set out without 
waiting till he arrived. 

On the 2nd*}* of the month of September, from 
Missilimakinac we entered Lake Dauphin, and 
arrived at an island;}; situated at the entrance of 
the Lake or Bay of the Puants, forty leagues from 
Missilimakinac, and which is inhabited by Indians 
of the Poutouatami nation. We found some 
Frenchmen there, who had been sent among the 
Illinois in previous years, and who had brought 
back to the Sieur de la Salle a pretty fair amount 
of furs.§ 

* This is all abridged in the Nouy. Dec. pp. 138-9. Com- 
pare Tonty, Ademoire, p. 6. La. Hist. Coll. i, p. 53. 

t Margry has 12th, Le Clercq ii, p. 150, has 2nd. Tonty 
reached Missilimakinac Sept. 17, Margry i, p. 579. 

I Washington or Pottawatamie Island. 

§ 1200 livres, Margry i, p. 450. What follows to ''took 
any one's advice," is not in Margry. 



OF LOUISIANA. 105 

The chief of this nation who had all possible 
affection for the Count de Frontenac, who had 
entertained him at Montreal, received us as well 
as he could, had the calumet danced to the Sieur 
de la Salle by his warriors ; and during four days' 
storm while our vessel was anchored thirty paces 
from the bay shore, this Indian chief believing 
that our bark was going to be stranded, came 
to join us in a canoe at the risk of his life and in 
spite of the increasing waves, we hoisted him with 
his canoe into our vessel. He told us in a martial 
tone that he was ready and wished to perish with the 
children of Onnontio, the Governor of the 
French, his good father and friend. 

Contrary to our opinion, the Sieur de la Salle 
who never took any one's advice, resolved to send 
back his bark from this place,* and to continue 
his route by canoe, but as he had only four, he 
was obliged to leave considerable merchandise in 
the bark, a quantity of utensils and tools hc 

* "To Niagara loaded with all his furs to pay his creditors." 
Nouv. Dec. p. 141, which abridges all this. 
11 



Io6 A DESCRIPTION 

ordered the pilot to discharge every thing at 
Missilimakinac, where he could take them again 
on his return. He also put all the peltries in the 
bark with a clerk and five good sailors. Their 
orders were to proceed to the great fall of 
Niagara, where they* were to leave the furs, and 
take on board other goods which another bark 
from Fort Frontenac, which awaited them near 
Fort Conty was to bring them, and that as soon 
as possible thereafter, they should sail back to 
Missilimakinac, where they would find instruc- 
tions as to the place to which they should bring 
the bark to winter. 

They set sail on the i8th of September, with 
a very favorable light west wind, making their 
adieu by firing a single cannon ; and we were 
never afterwards able to learn what course they 
had taken, and though there is no doubt, but that 
she perished, we were never able to learn any 
other circumstances of their shipwreck than the 
following. The bark having anchored in the 

* Margry has " to the storehouse which he had built at the 
end of Lake Erie." 



OF LOUISIANA. 107 

north of Lake Dauphin, the pilot* against the 
opinion of some Indians, who assured him that 
there was a great storm in the middle of the lake, 
resolved to continue his voyage, without consider- 
ing that the sheltered position where he lay, 
prevented his knowing the force of the wind. 
He had scarcely sailed a quarter of a league from 
the coast, when these Indians saw the bark 
tossing in an extraordinary manner, unable to 
resist the tempest, so that in a short time they 
lost sight of her, and they believe that she was 
either driven on some sandbank,"}" or that she 
foundered. 

We did not learn all this till the next year, and 
it is certain that the loss of this bark costs more 
than 40000 livres in goods, tools and peltries as 
well as men and rigging which he had imported 
into Canada from France and transported from 
Montreal to Fort Frontenac in bark canoes. 

* "■ Luke who was a malcontent as we have remarked." 
Nouv. Dec. pp. 142-3. 

f Margry has : " which are near the Huron islands, where 
she was swallowed up." The whole account of the loss of 
the Griffin is in La Salle's letter, Margry ii, p. 73. 



to8 A DESCRIPTION 

This would appear impossible to those who know 
the weakness of this kind of craft, and the weight 
of anchors and cables,* on which he paid eleven 
livres per hundred pounds. 

We set out the next day, September I9th,f 

with fourteen persons in four canoes, I directing 
the smallest, loaded with five hundred pounds, 
with a carpenter just arrived from France, who 
did not know how to avoid the waves, during 
rough weather, I had every difficulty to manage 
this little craft. These four bark canoes were 
loaded with a forge and all its appurtenances, 
carpenter's, joiner's and pit sawyer's tools, arms 
and merchandise. 

We took our course southerly towards the 
mainland four good leagues distant from the 
island of the Poutouatamis.J In the middle of 
the traverse and amid the most beautiful calm 
in the world, a storm arose which endangered 
our lives, and which made us fear for the 

* The rest not in Margry. 

f Le Clercq who abridges the voyage says i8th. 

J Still called Pottawatomie Island. 



OF LOUISIANA. 1 09 

bark,* and more for ourselves. We com- 
pleted this great passage amid the darkness of 
night, calling to one another so as not to part 
company. The water often entered our canoes, 
and the impetuous wind lasted four days with a 
fury like the greatest tempests of ocean. We 
nevertheless reached the shore in a little sandy 
bay, and stayed five days, waiting for the lake to 
grow calm. During this stay, the Indian hunter 
who accompanied us, killed while hunting only 
a single porcupine which served to season our 
squashes and the Indian corn that we had. 

On the 25th we continued our route all day, 
and a part of the night favored by the moon, 
along the western shore of Lake Dauphin, but 
the wind coming up a little too strong, we were 
forced to land on a bare rock, on which we 
endured the rain and snow for two days, sheltered 
by our blankets, and near a little fire which we 
fed with wood that the waves drove ashore. 

* For all from this to "that we had" Margry has only 
" because it lasted four days, with a fury like the greatest storms 
at sea. He nevertheless gained the shore, where he remained 
six days for the lake to calm." 



IIO A DESCRIPTION 

On the 28th after the celebration of mass* 
we kept on until far into the night, and until a 
whirlwind forced us to land on a rocky point 
covered with bushes. We remained there two f 
days, and consumed the rest of our provisions, 
that is to say, the Indian corn and squashes that 
we had bought of the Poutouatamis and of which 
we had been unable to lay in a greater supply, 
because our canoes were too heavily laden, and 
because we hoped to find some on our route. 

We set out the first of October, and after 
making twelve J leagues fasting, arrived near 
another village of the Poutouatamies§. These 
Indians all flocked to the lake shore to receive us 
and to haul us in from the waves which rose to 
an extraordinary height. The Sieur de la Salle 
fearing that his men would desert, and that some 

* These four words omitted in Margry. 

f Three in Nouv. Decouv., p. 147. 

I Ten in Margry, i, p. 452. 

§ Margry adds : " The bank was high and steep, and exposed 
to the northeast, which was then blowing and increased to such 
a degree that the waves broke on the shore in an extraordinary 
manner." What follows down to " evident peril and " is not 
in Margry. 



OF LOUISIANA, III 

of them would carelessly waste some of the goods, 

pushed on and we were obliged to follow him 
three leagues beyond the village of the Indians, 
notwithstanding the evident peril, and he saw 
no other alternative to take in order to land in 
safety than to leap into the water with his three 
canoemen, and all together take hold of the 
canoe and its load and drag it ashore in spite of 
the waves which sometimes covered them over 
their heads. 

He then came to meet the canoe, which I 
guided with this man who had no experience in 
this work, and jumping waist high into the water, 
we carried our little craft all at once, and went 
to receive the other two canoes in the same 
manner as the former. And* as the waves break- 
ing on the shore formed a kind of undertow, 
which drags out into the lake those who think 
they are safe, I made a powerful effort and took 
on my shoulders our good old Recollect who 
accompanied us, and this amiable missionary of 
Saint Francis, seeing himself out of danger, all 
* The rest of this paragraph is not in Margry, 



112 A DESCRIPTION 

drenched as he was with water never failed to 
display an extraordinary cheerfulness. 

As we had no acquaintance with the Indians 
of this village, the Commandant first ordered all 
the arms to be got ready, and posted himself on 
an eminence where it was difficult to surprise us, 
and whence he could with a small force defend 
himself against a greater number. He then sent 
three of his men to buy provisions in the village, 
under the protection of the calumet of peace 
which the Poutouatamis of the Island had given 
the Sieur de la Salle, and which they had pre- 
viously accompanied with their dances and cere- 
monies, which they use in their feasts and public 
solemnities. 

This calumet* is a kind of large pipe for 
smoking, the head of which is of a fine red stone 
well polished, and the stem two feet and a half 
long is a pretty stout cane adorned with feathers 
of all sorts of colors, very neatly mingled and 
arranged, with several tresses of woman's hair, 

* The Nouv. Dec, p. 149, prefaces this with some remarks 
on the esteem in which the calumet was held. 



OF LOUISIANA. II3 

braided in various ways, with* two wings, such 
as are usually represented on the Caduceus of 
Mercury,"!" each nation embellishing it according 
to its especial usage. A calumet of this kind is a 
sure passport among all the allies of those who 
have given it ; and they are convinced that great 
misfortunes would befall them, if they violated 
the faith of the calumet. AndJ all their enter- 
prises in war and peace and most important 
ceremonies are sealed and attested by the calumet 
which they make all smoke with whom they 
conclude any matter of consequence. § 

* The rest of the sentence omitted in Margry. 

fNouv. Decouv. adds : This cane is inserted in necks of 
Huars (loons) which are a kind of bird spotted white and black 
as large as our geese or in necks of woodducks which build 
their nests in the hollows of trees, although the water is their 
usual element. These ducks are striped with three or four 
different colors, p. 150. 

I This is omitted in Margry. 

§ I should have perished several times during this voyage, if 
I had not used the calumet. This will be seen in the sequel 
of this history, where I shall have to speak of the monsters i 
had to overcome and the precipices where I have been obliged 
to puss in this discovery." Nouvelle Decouv., p. 151. 



114 A DESCRIPTION 

These three men with this safeguard and 
their arms, arrived at the little village of the In- 
dians three leagues distant from the landing, but 
they found no one. These Indians, at the sight 
of our canoes, perceiving that we had not landed, 
on passing them, had taken fright and abandoned 
their village. Accordingly these men after using 
all endeavors in vain to speak to some one of 
these Indians, took what Indian corn they could 
carry from their cabins, and left goods there in 
place of what they appropriated ; and then took 
the road to return to us. 

Meanwhile twenty of these Indians armed with 
guns, axes, bows, arrows, and clubs which are 
called casse-tetes, approached the place where 
we were. The Sieur de la Salle advanced to 
accost them with four of his men armed with 
guns, pistols and sabres. He asked them what 
they wished ; seeing that they appeared perplexed, 
he told them to come on, for fear his men, who, ••' 
he pretended were out hunting, might kill them, 
if they found them out of the way. He made 
* Rest of sentence not in Margry. 



OF LOUISIANA. II5 

them sit down at the foot of the rising ground 
on which we had camped, and from which we 
could watch all their movements. We began to 
occupy them with different things, to amuse them 
till our three men got back from the village. 
These men appearing some time afterwards, as 
soon as the Indians perceived the peace calumet 
which one of our men carried, they rose uttering 
a great cry of joy, and began to dance after their 
fashion. Far from being angry about the Indian 
corn which they saw and which had been taken 
from them, they on the contrary sent to the village 
to bring more, and gave us some also the next 
day, as much as we could conveniently put in our 
canoes. 

It was nevertheless deemed prudent to fell the 
trees around and to command our men to pass 
the night under arms, for fear of any surprise. 
About ten o'clock the next day, the oldmen of 
the village arrived with their peace calumet and 
feasted all the French. The Sieur de la Salle * 
thanked them by a present of some axes, knives 

* " We " Nouv. Dec, p. 154. 



Il6 A DESCRIPTION 

and some masses of beads for their women's 
adornment, and left th^m very well satisfied. 

We set out the same day, October 2d, and we 
sailed for four days along the shore. It was 
bordered by great hills running abruptly down 
to the lake, where there was scarcely place to 
land. We were even forced every evening to 
climb to the summit, and carry up there our 
canoes and cargoes, so as not to leave them ex- 
posed by night to the waves that beat the foot. 
We were also obliged by too violent headwinds, 
during these four days and very frequently after- 
wards, to land with the greatest hardship. To 
embark it required that two men should go waist 
high into the water, and hold the canoe head on 
to the wave, pushing it ahead or drawing it back 
as the wave rolled in or ran out from land until 
it was loaded. Then it was pushed out to wait till 
the others were loaded in the same way ; and we 
had almost as much trouble at the other land- 
ings. The Indian corn * that we ate very 

* The following to " tJmely aid " is almost all omitted in 
Margry. In the brief reference to Father Gabriel his age 64 is 
mentioned. 



OF LOUISIANA. II7 

sparingly and provisions failing us, our good old 
Recollect had several times fainting fits. I twice 
brought him to, with a little confection of 
hyacinth, which I preserved preciously. For 
twenty-four hours we ate only a handfull of 
Indian corn cooked under the ashes or merely 
boiled in water, and during all this time we were 
obliged to keep on towards a go<;d country and 
to paddle with all our strength whole days. 
Our men frequently ran for little haws and 
wild fruit, which they ate with great avidity. 
Several fell sick who thought that these fruits 
had poisoned them. The more we suffered, the 
more God seemed to give me especially strength, 
and I often outstripped in paddling our other 
canoes. During this scarcity, He who cares for 
the smallest birds, allowed us to see several 
crows and eagles, which were on the lake shore. 
Plying our paddles with redoubled zeal towards 
these carnivorous birds, we found there half a 
very fat deer which the wolves had killed and 
half eaten. We recruited ourselves on the iiesh 
of this animal, blessing Providence which had 
sent us such timely aid. 



Il8 A DESCRIPTION 

Thus our little fleet advanced toward the 
South where we found the country always finer 
and more temperate. 

On the 1 6th of October we began to find a 
great abundance of game, and our Indian, a very 
excellent hunter, killed stags and deer, and our 
Frenchmen very fat poules d'inde. And at last 
on the 28th * of the month of October we reached 
the extremity of Lake Dauphin, where the heavy 
wind forced us to land. 

We went out to scout, as we were accustomed 
to do in the woods and prairies. We found very 
good ripe grapes, the berries of which were as 
large as damson plums. To get this fruit we 
had to cut down the trees on which the vines 
ran. We made some wine f which lasted us 
nearly three months and a half and which we 
kept in gourds. These we put every day in the 
sand to prevent the wine from souring, and in 
order to make it last longer, we said mass only 

* Nouv. Dec. p. 157 says i8th. 

f For the rest of this sentence and the two following, Margry's 
Relation says merely *' in order to say mass." 



OF LOUISIANA. 1 19 

on holidays and Sundays, one after the other. 
All the woods were full of vines which grow wild. 
We ate this fruit to make the meat palatable 
which we were forced to eat without bread. 

Fresh footprints of men were noticed at this 
place. This forced the Sieur de la Salle to keep his 
men on their guard, and without making any noise. 
All our men obeyed for a time, but one of them 
having perceived * a bear, could not restrain him- 
self from firing his gun at it, which killed the 
animal and sent it rolling from the top of the 
mountain to the bottom to the very foot of our 
cabins. 

This noise revealed us to a hundred and twenty- 
five Indians of the nation of the Outouagamis,f 
who live near the extremity of the Bay of the 
Puants J who were cabined in our vicinity. The 
Sieur de la Salle was very uneasy about the trails 
we had seen. He blamed our men for their 
lack of prudence, and then to prevent surprises, 

* Margry's Relation for the rest of the sentence has "a bear 
and a stag, they could not forbear firing at them." 
f The Foxes. 
J Green Bay. 



I20 A DESCRIPTION 

he placed a sentinel near the canoes, under which 
all the goods were placed to protect them from 
the rain.* 

This precaution did not prevent thirty Outoua- 
gamis, under cover of the rain which was falling 
in torrents, and through the negligence of the 
sentinel who was on duty, from gliding by night 
with their usual dexterity, along the hill where 
our canoes were, and lying on their bellies near 
one another, succeed in stealing the f coat of the 
Sieur de la Salle's lackey,^and a part of what was 
under, which was passed from hand to hand. 
Our sentinel hearing some noise and rousing us, 
each one ran to arms.]}] These Indians seeing 
themselves thus discovered, their chief called out 
that he was a friend. He was told in answer, 

* And another near the cabins, Margry, i p. 456. 

f For " the coat " etc., ..." and a " Margry's reads " a good." 

I For this sentence Margry's Relation gives a different state- 
ment. "" The Sieur de h Salle awoke at this moment and 
having risen to ascertain whether his sentinels were discharging 
their duty, he saw something move which induced him to call 
his men to arms, and with them he occupied an eminence 
by which the Indians were compelled to pass." 



OF LOUISIANA. 12 1 

that it was an unseasonable hour, and that people 
did not come in that way by night except to 
steal or kill those who were not on their guard. 
He replied that in truth, the shot that had 
been fired, had made his countrymen all think 
that it was a party of Iroquois, their enemies, as 
the other Indians, their neighbors, did not use such 
lire arms, and that they had accordingly advanced 
with the intent of killing them, but having dis- 
covered that they were Frenchmen whom they 
regarded as their brethren, the impatience which 
they felt to see them, had prevented their waiting 
for daylight to visit us and to smoke in our 
calumet with us. This is the ordinary com- 
pliment of these Indians and their greatest marks 
of affection. 

We pretended to credit these reasons, and they 
were told to approach to the number of four or 
five only, because their young men were given to 
stealing and that our Frenchmen were in no 
humor to put up with it. Four or five old men 
having advanced we endeavored to entertain them 
12 



122 A DESCRIPTION 

till daylight; when day came we left them at 
liberty to retire. 

After their departure our ship carpenters per- 
ceived that they had been robbed and as we knew 
perfectly the disposition of the Indians, and we 
knew that they would form similar enterprises 
every night, if we dissembled on this occasion, 
we resolved to insist on redress. The Sieur de la 
Salle at the head of our men ascended an eminence 
of peninsular form ; he tried in person to find some 
Indian off by himself. He had scarcely marched 
three hundred paces, when he found the fresh 
trail of a hunter. He followed him pistol in 
hand and having overtaken him soon after * 
opposite a hill where I was gathering grapes with 
Father Gabriel, he called me and begged me to 
follow him. He seized and put him under 
guard of his men, after having learned from him 
all the circumstances of the theft. He again took 
the field with two of his men and having arrested 
one of the most important Indians of his nation, 

* From here to " follow him " omitted in Margry where 
" we " is generally " he." 



OF LOUISIANA. 123 

he showed him at a distance the one he already- 
held as a prisoner, and sent him back to tell his 
people, that he would kill their comrade, if they 
did not bring back all that they had stolen during 
the night. 

This proposition embarrassed these savages, 
because they had cut the lackey's coat in pieces, 
and taken some goods with the buttons * to 
divide them among them. Thus unable to restore 
them whole, and not knowing by what means 
to deliver their comrade, as they have a 
strong friendship for one another, they resolved 
to rescue him by force. 

The next morning, 30th of the month of 
October, they all advanced arms in hand to begin 
the attack. The peninsula where we were en- 
camped, was separated from the wood where the 
Indians appeared, by a long sandy plain two gun 
shots wide. At the end of this plain towards 
the wood we noticed that there were several small 
mounds, and that the one nearest to us comman- 

* For " the lackey's coat the buttons " Margry has, " some 

goods." 



i2f4 A DESCRIPTION 

ded the others. This the Sieur de la Salle occu- 
pied and commanded five men who carried their 
blankets half rolled around the left arm to shield 
themselves against the arrows of the Indians.* 
He followed his men immediately after, to sup- 
port the former, but the youngest of the Indians 
seeing the French approach to charge on them 
drew off and took to cover under a large tree 
on the hill. This did not prevent their chiefs 
from continuing to remain near us. 

There were only seven or eight who had guns, 
the others had bows and arrows only ; and during 
all these manoeuvres on both sides, we three 
Recollects were there saying our office, and as I 
was the one of the three who had seen most in 
matter of war, having served as King's chaplain 
under the direction of the Very Rev. Father 
Hyacinth le Fevre, I camef out of our cabin to 

* Margry's Relation adds '' who had seized all these emi- 
nences," and instead of what follows down to 125 Indians reads 
'* But these savages seeing the French approach to charge them 
abandoned the nearest and gave the Sieur de la Salle time to 
mount the highest. This action" 

f The Nouvelle Decouverte omits this name and adds " in 
sieges and battles." What precedes corresponds mainly in both 
editions. 



OF LOUISIANA. 125 

see what figure our men made under arms and to 
encourage two of the youngest whom I saw grow 
pale, and who nevertheless made for all that a 
show of being brave and haughty as much as 
their leader. I approached in the direction of 
the oldest Indians, and as they saw that I was 
unarmed, they readily inferred that I approached 
them with a view to part the combatants and to 
become the mediator of their differences. One 
of our men seeing a band of red stuff, which 
served as a head band to one of these Indians, 
went and tore it off his head, giving him to 
understand that he had stolen it from us. 
This bold act of eleven armed Frenchmen against 
a hundred and twenty-five Indians, so intimidated 
these savages that two of their old men near whom 
I was, presented the peace calumet, and having 
advanced on the assurance given that they could 
do so without any fear, they said that they had 
not resorted to this extreme course, except from 
the inability* they were in to restore what they 
had stolen from us, in the condition in which 
* The text has impatience ^ evidently a misprint for impuissance. 



126 A DESCRIPTION 

they had taken it : that they were ready to restore 
what was whole, and to pay for the rest. At the 
same time they presented some beaver robes 
to the Sieur de la Salle to dispose his mind 
to peace, excusing themselves for the small value 
of their present, as the season was too far advanced. 
We contented ourselves with their excuses, they 
fulfilled what they had promised, and thus peace 
was restored. 

The next day was spent in dances, in feasts and 
speeches,* and the head chief of these Indians 
turning towards the Recollects, said : " See, the 
Grey Gowns, for whom we feel great esteem ! 
they go barefooted like us, they despise the beaver 
robes whi :h we wish to give them, without any 
hope of return ; they have no arms to kill us : 
they flatter and caress our little children, and give 
them beads f for nothing, and those of our nation 

* The following is omitted in Margry down to " He added 
that " the connection being by the words " in which they ex- 
horted the Sieur de la Salle to remain with them and not go 
among the Illinois whom it wouid be impossible to resist, and 
who had resolved to massacre all the French." 

t "And little knives" Nouv. Decouv., p. i66. 



OF LOUISIANA. I27 

who have carried furs to the villages of the French 
have told us that that Onnotio * the great chief of 
the French loves them, because they have left 
everything that the French esteem most precious, 
to come and visit us, and to remain with us. 
You who are the chief of those who are here, 
arrange so as to make one of the Gray gowns 
remain with us. We will give them part of all 
we have to eat, and we will take them to our 
village after we have killed some buffalo ; and 
you who are master, arrange so as to stay here 
also with us ; do not go to the Islinois, for we 
know that they wish to massacre all the French, j- 
It will be impossible for you to resist that numerous 
nation. He added that since an Iroquois, whom 
the Islinois had burned, had assured them that the 

* Onontio, Nouv. Decouv. Huron and Onondaga word 
meaning Beautiful mountain. Ononta^ meaning mountain, and 
io in composition meaning beautiful. The term was given 
originally to Montmagny, Governor of Canada, apparently 
in the sense of " Mont magnifique," " Beautiful mountain " 
and was subseqnentlv given to all the governors of Canada. 
The Nouv. Dec. has " Canadians " for " French " throughout 
this part. 

t Your followers. Nouv. Dec, p. 167. 



12 o A DESCRIPTION 

war which the Iroquois made on them, had been 
advised by the French, who hated the IsUnois. 
They added several like reasons which alarmed 
almost all our Frenchmen,* and greatly disquieted 
the Sieur de la Salle, because all the Indians whom 
he had met on our whole route, had told him 
pretty nearly the same thing. 

Nevertheless as he knew that these reason 
might have been have been inspired by those who 
opposed our enterprise and by the jealousy of 
the Indians to whom the Islinois were formid- 
able by their valor, and who feared that they 
might become still more haughty, when by 
means of the Frenchf they had acquired the use 
of fire arms, we resolved to pursue our course, 
taking all necessary precautions for our safety. 

He accordingly answering the Outouagamis, 
told them that he thanked them for the infor- 
mation which they gave us, but that the French 
who are spirits (the Indians so style us, saying 
that they are only men, but that we are spirits)| 

* Canadians. Nouv. Dec, p. 167. 
f By our means Nouv. Dec. 

I For "the French ... spirit " Margry reads "he" For 
French, the Nouv. Dec. has " we." 



OF LOUISIANA. 1 29 

did not fear the Islinois, and that we would 
bring them to reason by friendship or by force. 

The next day, the first of the month of No- 
vember, we all reembarked and we arrived at the 
rendezvous, which we had arranged with* twenty 
other Frenchmen who were to come and meet 
us by the other side of the lake. It was at the 
mouth of the river of the Miamis, which coming 
from the south empties into Lake Dauphin. 

We were surprised to find no one there, be- 
cause-]^ the French whom we expected, had had 
a much shorter route to make than we had, and 
their canoes were not heavily laden J 

We had resolved to make the Sieur de la Salle, 
see that he ought not to expose us unseasonably 
and not to wait for winter, to conduct us to the 

* Margry reads " the Sieur de Tonty has had etc." See 
LeClercq, Etablissment de la Foi 2 p. 151. 

f Margry adds: ''nevertheless he profited by this conjunc- 
ture to gain time and carry out the design that he had formed. 
He had resolved not to expose himself unseasonably," etc. 

I All the rest is omitted in Margry, which reads, "and that 
having been joined by the Sieur de Tonty who was to bring 
him 2vj men he would be able without danger," etc. 



130 A DESCRIPTION 

Islinois, because during that season these nations, 
in order to hunt more conveniently, break up 
into families or bands of two or three hundred 
persons each,J and that the longer we lingered 
in that spot, the greater difficulty we should find 
in getting there. That as the hunting began to 
fail where we were, his whole party ran a risk 
of starving to death, and that among the Islinois 
we should find Indian corn for our food, and 
that we should live better, being only fourteen 
men by our route, than if we were thirty-two ; 
that if the rivers should freeze over, we would 
not be able of ourselves to carry all the equipage, 
for a hundred leagues. He answered us that 
when the twenty men whom he expected had 
joined us, he would be able without danger to 
make himself known to the first band of Islinois 
whom he should find hunting, and gain them by 
kind treatment, and by presents, learning some 
tincture of the Islinois language, and that by this 
means he would easily form alliance with the 
rest of the nation. 

We* understood by similar remarks, that he 

* This sentence omitted in Margry. 



OF LOUISIANA. I3I 

regarded his own will alone as reason ; and he 
told us that if all his men deserted he would 
remain with our Indian hunter, and that he 
would easily find means by hunting to enable 
the three Recollect missionaries to live. 

In this thought, he availed himself of the 
delay of the Frenchmen * whom he expected ; 
he told his men that he was resolved to wait, 
and to amuse them by some useful occupation, 
he proposed to them to build a fort, and a house 
for the security of the bark and of the goods 
which she was to bring, in order to serve us as a 
refuge in case of need. 

There was at the mouth of the river of the 
Miamis,*!' an eminence with a kind of platform 
on top and naturally fortified. It was high and 
steep, of triangular figure, formed on two sides 
by the river, and on the other by a deep ravine. 
He felled the trees by which it was covered and 
cleared away the underbrush for two gun shots 
in the direction of the woods. Then he began 

* Our men. Noiiv. Dec, p. 170. 

f Now known as the St. Joseph's. The mouth forms 
Benton Harbor. Beckwith's Historic Notes, p. 75. 



132 A DESCRIPTION 

a redoubt forty feet long by eighty * broad, 
fortified by squared beams and joists, and musket 
proof, laid one on another : his design being to 
put inclined palisades around the two sides facing 
the river. He cut down palisades which he 
wished to plant en tenaille twenty-five feet high 
on the land side. 

The month of November was spent in these 
works,! during which time we ate nothing but 
bear meat that our hunter killed. There were 
at this place many of these animals, that were 
attracted to it, by the great quantities of grapes 
growing everywhere there ; but our people seeing 
the Sieur de la Salle all unmanned by the fear 
he entertained of the loss of his bark, and utterly 
annoyed also at the delay of his men, whom the 
Sieur de Tonty was to bring us, the rigorous set- 
ting in of winter as a climax disheartening them, 
the mechanics worked only reluctantly, storming 

* Margry has 30. 

f Instead of what follows down to " perseverance " Mar- 
gry reads : "except the holidays and Sundays, when all the party 
attended divine service and the sermon which Fathers Gabriel 
and Louis delivered alternately after Vespers." 



OF LOUISIANA. I33 

against the fat bear meat, and at their being de- 
prived of liberty to go and kill deer to eat with 
the bear fat, but their aim all tended to deser- 
tion.* 

We made a bark cabin during this halt, in 
order to say mass more conveniently, and on holi- 
days and Sundays Father Gabriel and I preached 
alternately, chosing the most impressive matters 
to exhort our men to patience and perseverance. 

From the commencement of the same month 
we had examined the mouth of the river. We 
had marked a sand bank there, and to facilitate 
the entrance of the bark, in case it arrived, the 
channel was marked out by two tall poles planted 
on either side of the entrance, with bear skinf 
pendants, and buoys all along. We had more- 
over sent to Missilimakinac two of our men, in- 
formed of all things to serve as guides to Lukef 
the pilot. 

On the 20th of November, the Sieur de Tonty 

* Le Clercq gives this briefly. Etablissement de la Foi. ii, p. 
151. 

t This word not in Margry. 



134 A DESCRIPTION 

arrived* with two canoes loaded with several 
stags. This revived a little the drooping spirits 
of our workmen, but as he brought us only half 
of the men whom we expected, and had left the 
rest at liberty three days from our works, this 
gave the Sieur de la Salle some uneasiness ; our 
new comers said that the bark had not touched 
at Missilimakinac, and that they had heard no 
tidings of her from the Indians, coming from 
all sides of the lakes, nor from the two men 
who had been sent to Missilimakinac and 
whom they had met on the way. He feared 
and with reason that his bark had been wrecked. 
Nevertheless he kept his men working at the 
Fort of the Miamis, as he called it, and not 
seeing her appear after waiting so long, he 
resolved to set out, for fear of being stopped by 
the ice which began to close theriver,f and which 
broke up at the first light rain. Nevertheless we 

* Instead of the following to " new comers, said." Margry 
has simply " who said to the Sieur de la Salle." Tonty says 
he arrived Nov. 12. Margry i, p. 580. 

■\ The rest of the sentence and down to " deserted " is not 
in Margry. 



OF LOUISIANA. 135 

had to wait for the rest of the men whom the 
Sieur de Tonty had left behind, and to repair the 
fault that he had committed, he retraced his steps 
to make them come on and join us at once. 
On the way he wished to hold a little, and re- 
sist the highwind, against the opinion of Sieur 
Dautray'^ and his other canoemen, and as he had 
only one hand and could not help his two men 
the waves made them yaw and threw them broad 
side on the lake shore, where they lost their guns 
and their little baggage. f This obliged them 
to come back to us, and fortunately the rest of 
our men followed soon after them, except two 
whom we most mistrusted and who, we believed, 
had deserted. 

We embarked on the 3d of December with 
thirty men in eight canoes and ascended the 
river of the Miamis, taking our course to the 

* John Francis Bourdon, Sieur d'Autray, son of John Bourdon, 
Attorney General and Chief Engineer of Canada, born at 
Quebec, Feb., 1647. Tanguay, Dictionaire, p. 78. 

t Tonty in Margry i, p. 581. Tonty, Memoire p. 7. La 
Hist. Coll. I, p. 54. 



136 A DESCRIPTION 

southeast for about twenty-five* leaguCvS. We f 
could not make out the portage which we were 
to take with our canoes and all our equipage, in 
order to go and embark at the source of River 
Seignelay,J and as we had gone higher up in a 
canoe without discerning the place where we 
were to march by land to take this other river, 
which runs to the Islinois, we halted to wait for 
the Sieur de la Salle, who had gone exploring on 
land, and as he did not return, we did not know 
what course to pursue. I begged two of our 

* Margry say twenty. 

fThis down to "He told us that the marshes" is Henne- 
pin's account, the Margry Relation has : " One day the Sieur de 
la Salle sent his canoes ahead and followed them on land accord- 
ing to his custom, hunting and seeking to make some profita- 
ble discovery. He gave chase to a stag that he had wounded 
and that he could not overtake till he plunged 4 or 5 leagues 
into the wood. He thought that the two men whom he had 
with him were following his trail on the snow and would soon 
overtake him ; but they got astray and turned back to their 
starting place in the morning instead of following the path that 
he took. Accordingly after waiting sometime in vain, he 
took his route to come up to the canoes again. Marshes. 

X The Nouv. Dec, say " River of the Illinois. This river 
empties and loses its name in the river Meschasipi which in the 
language of the Illinois means " Great River," p. 176. It was 
the Theakiki, now Kankakee branch of the Illinois. 



OF LOUISIANA. I37 

most alert men to penetrate into the woods, and 
fire off their guns so as to give him notice of the 
spot where we were waiting for him. Two others 
ascended the river but to no purpose, for the 
night obliged them to retrace their step.^. 

The next day I took two of our men on a 
lightened canoe, to make greater expedition, 
and to seek him by ascending the river, but in 
vain, and at four o'clock in the afternoon we 
perceived him at a distance, his hands and face 
all black with the coals and the wood that 
he had lighted during the night which was 
cold. He had two animals of the size of 
musk rats, hanging at his belt, which had a 
very beautiful skin, like a kind of ermine, 
which he killed with blows of a stick, with- 
out these little animals taking flight, and which 
often let themselves hang by the tail from 
branches of trees, and as they were very fat, our 
canoemen feasted on them. He told us that the 
marshes he met with obliged him to make a wide 
sweep, and as moreover he was hindered by the 

snow which was falling rapidly, he was unable 
13 



13^ A DESCRIPTION 

to reach the bank of the river before two o'clock 
at night. He fired two gun shots to notify us, 
and no one having answered him, bethought that 
the canoes had gone on ahead of him, and kept 
on his way, along and up the river. After march- 
ing in this way more than three hours, he saw fire 
on a mound, which he ascended brusquely, and after 
calling two or three times, but instead of finding 
us asleep as he expected, he saw only a little fire 
among some brush, and under an oak tree, the 
spot where a man had been lying down on dry 
herbs, and who had apparently gone off at the 
noise which he had heard.* It was some Indian 
who had gone there in ambush to surprise and 
kill some of his enemies along the river. He 
called him in two or three languages, and at last 
to show him that he did not fear him, he cried 
that he was going to sleep in his place. He 
renewed the fire and after warming himself well, 
he took steps to guarantee himself against sur- 
prise, by cutting down around him a quantity of 
bushes, which falling across among those that 
* Tonty describes this adventure briefly, Margry i, p, 581. 



OF LOUISIANA. 1 39 

remained standing, blocked the way, so that no one 
could approach him without making considerable 
noise, and awakening him. He then extinguished 
his fire and slept although it snowed all night. 

Father* Gabriel and I begged the Sieur de la 
Salle, not to leave his party as he had done, show- 
ing him that the whole success of our voyage 
depended on his presence. 

Our Indian had remained behind us to hunt, 
and not finding us at the portage, he went higher 
up, and came to tell us that we would have to 
descend the river. All our canoes were sent with 
him, and I remained with the Sieur de la Salle, 
who was very much fatigued, and as our cabiu 

* Instead of the following to " their load of meat," the 
Margry Relation reads : 

"The next day he went to seek Indian trails and he found 
that some had come three or four times to his rampart of brush- 
wood, but that they had not dared to cross it for fear of being 
discovered. He returned to the bank of the river, where find- 
ing no sign of the passage of the canoes, he retraced his trail 
of the day before and was following the current when he met 
Father Louis who was coming in search of him in his canoe, 
in which he embarked to proceed to the spot where the rest of 
his little fleet awaited him." 



140 A DESCRIPTION 

was composed only of flag mats, it took fire at 
night and would have burnt us, had I not 
promptly thrown ofF the mat which served as a 
door to our little quarters, and which was all in 
flames. 

We rejoined our party the next day, at the 
portage where Father Gabriel had made several 
crosses on the trees, that we might recognize it. 
We found there a number of buffalo horns and 
the carcasses of those animals, and some canoes 
that the Indians had made, of buffalo skins to 
cross the river with their load of meat. 

This place is situated on the edge of a great 
plain, at the extremity of which on the western 
side is a vUlage of Miamis, Mascontens* and 
Oiatinon gathered together. 

The river Seignelay f which flows to the 

* The Nouv. Dec. has Miamis Mascouteins, p. 181. The 
Ouiatenon are the Weas. 

f The portage was not far from the present city of South 
Bend, Indiana. " West of the city is Lake Kankakee, from 
which the Kankakee river takes its rise. The distance inter- 
vening between the head of this little lake and the St. Joseph is 
about two miles, over a piece of marshy ground, where the 



OF LOUISIANA. I4.I 

Islinois (Indians,) rises in a plain in the midst of 

much boggy land, over which it is not easy to 

walk. This river is only a league and a half 

dictant from that of the Miamis, and thus we 

transported all our equipage and our canoes by a 

road which J we marked for the benefit of those 

who might come after us, after leaving at the 

portage of the Miami river as well as at the fort 

which we had built at its mouth, letters § to 

serve as a guide to those who were to come and 

join us by the bark to the number of twenty-five. 

The river Seignelay is navigable for canoes to 

within a hundred paces of its source, and it 

increases to such an extent in a short time, that 

it is almost as broad and deeper than the Marne.|| 

It takes its course through vast marshes, where it 

elevation is so slight, " that," says Levette in his report on the 
Geology of St. Joseph County, "in the year 1832, a Mr. A. 
Croquillard dug a race and secured a flow of water from the 
lake to the St. Joseph, of sufficient power to run a grist and 
saw mill." Beclcwith, Historic Notes, p. 24. 

I This marking is not in Margry I, p. 463. 

§ Which were hung on trees at the pass. Nouv. Dec, p. 
182. 

II The Sambre and the Meuse. Nouv. Dec, p. 182. 



14-2 A DESCRIPTION 

winds about so, though its current is pretty strong, 
that after sailing on it for a whole day, we some- 
times found that we had not advanced more than 
two leagues in a straight line. As far as the eye 
could reach nothing was to be seen but marshes 
full of flags and alders. For more than forty 
leagues of the way, we could not have found a 
camping ground, except for some hummocks of 
frozen earth on which we slept and lit our fire. 
Our provisions ran out and we could find no 
game after passing these marshes, as we hoped to 
do, because there are only great open plains, 
where nothing grows except tall grass, which is 
dry at this season, and which the Miamis had 
burned while hunting buffalo, and * with all the 
address we employed to kill some deer, our hun- 
ters took nothing ; for more than sixty leagues 
journey, they killed only a lean stag, a small deer, 
some swans, and two wild geese for the subsist- 
ance of thirty-two men.f If our canoe men had 
found a chance, they would infallibly have all 

* The rest of the paragraph not in Margry. 
f Thirty or thirty-two, Nouv. Dec, p. 184. 



OF LOUISIANA. I43 

abandoned us, to strike inland and join the Indians 
whom we discerned by the flames of the prairies 
to which they had set fire in order to kill the 
buffalo more easily. 

These animals are ordinarily in great numbers 
there, as it is easy to judge by the bones, the horns 
and skulls that we saw on all sides. The Miamis 
hunt them at the end of autumn * in the follow- 
ing manner : 

When they see a herd,"j" they gather in great 
numbers, and set fire to the grass every where 
around these animals, except some passage which 
they leave on purpose, and where they take post 
with their bows and arrows. The buffalo, seek- 
ing to escape the fire, are thus compelled to pass 
near these Indians, who sometimes kill as many 
as a hundred and twenty J in a day, all which they 

* The Nouv. Dec, here introduces the paragraph " We con- 
tinued " to " cable " which is in this edition after the account of 
the buffalo. 

f " When the Indians see a herd of these cattle or bulls, they 
gather, etc." Nouv. Decouv., p. 186. 

I Margry has '* two hundred in a day " and omits rest of 
paragraph. 



I/j.4. A DESCRIPTION 

distribute according to the wants of the families ; 
and these Indians all triumphant over the massacre 
of so many animals, come to notify their women, 
who at once proceed to bring in the meat. Some 
of them at times take on their backs three hundred 
pounds weight, and also throw their children on 
top of their load which does not seem to burthen 
them more than a soldier's sword at his side. 

These cattle have very fine wool instead of hair, 
and the females have it longer than the males. 
Their horns are almost all black, much thicker 
than those of cattle in Europe, but not quite so 
long. Their head is of monstrous size ; the neck 
is very short, but very thick,* and sometimes six 
hands "j* broad. They have a hump or slight ele- 
vation between the two shoulders. Their legs 
are very thick and short, covered with a very long 
wool. On the head and between the horns they 
have long black hair which falls over their eyes 
and gives them a fearful look. The "^ meat of 

* Rest of sentence omitted in Margry. 

f In the Nouv. Decouv., pants, apparently palmes or paumes. 
J All the description that follows down to "as commonly as 
in Europe," is omitted in Margry. 



OF LOUISIANA. I45 

these animals is very succulent. They are very 
fat in autumn, because all the summer they are 
up to their necks in the grass. These vast 
countries are so full of prairies, that it seems this 
is the element and the country of the buffalo.* 
There are at near intervals some woods where 
these animals retire to ruminate, and to get out 
of the heat of the sun. 

These wild cattle or bulls change country 
according to the season and the diversity of cli- 
mate. When they approach the northern lands 
and begin to feel the beginning of winter, they 
pass to the southern lands. They follow one 
another on the way sometimes for a league. They 
all lie down in the same place, and their resting- 
ground is often full of wild purslain, which we 
have sometimes eaten. j* The paths by which 
they have passed are beaten like our great roads 
in Europe, and no grass grows there. They cross 

* " The element of the buffalo and the country of the deer." 
Nouv. Dec, p. 188. 

t " This leads to the conjecture that it is introduced into these 
parts by the dung of these bulls and cows." Nouv. Dec, p. 
189. 



14-6 A DESCRIPTION 

rivers and streams.* The wild cows go to the 
islands to prevent the wolves from eating their 
calves ; and j* even when the calves can run, 
the wolves would not venture to approach them, 
as the cows would exterminate them. The 
Indians have this forecast not to drive these 
animals entirely from their countries, to pursue 
only those who are wounded by arrows, and the 
others that escape, they suffer to go at liberty with- 
out pursuing them further, in order not to alarm 
them too much. And although these Indians 
of these vast continents are naturally given to des- 
troy the animals, they have never been able to 
exterminate these wild cattle, for however much 
they hunt them these beasts multiply so that they 
return in still greater numbers the following year. 
The Indian women spin on the distaff the 
wool of these cattle, out of which they make 
bags to carry the meat, boucanned and some- 
times dried in the sun, which these women keep 

* " That they find in their way by swimming in order to pas- 
ture from one land to another." lb. 

f"' But when once the calves are large enough to run after their 
mothers, the wolves." lb. 



OF LOUISIANA. I47 

frequently for three or four months of the year, 
and although they have no salt, they dry it so 
well that the meat undergoes no corruption, four 
months after they have thus dressed this meat, 
one would say on eating it that the animals had just 
been killed, and we drank the broth with them * 
instead of water which is the ordinary drink of all 
the nations of America, who have no intercourse 
with Europeans, 

The ordinary skins of these wild cattle weigh 
from one hundred to a hundred and twenty pounds. 
The Indians cut off the back and the neck part 
which is the thickest part of the skin, and they 
take only the thinnest part of the belly, which 
they dress very neatly, with the brains of all 
kinds of animals, by means of which they render 
it as supple as our chamois skins dressed with oil. 
They paint it with different colors, trim it with 
white and red porcupine quills, and make robes 
of it to parade in their feasts. In winter they 
use them to cover themselves especially at night. 

* In which this meat had boiled, like the Indians. Nouv. 
Dec, p. 190. 



148 A DESCRIPTION 

Their robes which are full of curly wool have a 
very pleasing appearance. 

When the Indians have killed any cows, the 
little calves follow the hunters, and go and lick their 
hands or fingers, these Indians sometimes take 
them to their children and after they have played 
with them, they knock them on the head to eat 
them. They preserve the hoofs * of all these 
little animals, dry them and fasten them to rods, 
and in their dances they shake and rattle them, 
according to the various postures and motions of 
the singers and dancers. This machine somewhat 
resembles a tambour. 

These little animals might easily be domesti- 
cated and used to plough the land. 

These wild cattle subsist in all seasons of the 
year. When they are surprised by winter and 
cannot reach in time the southern land and the 
warm country, and the ground is all covered with 
snow, they have the tact to turn up and throw 
aside the snow, to crop the grass hidden beneath. 
They are heard lowing, but not as commonly as 
in Europe. 

* In the Rel., it is ' argots' but in the Nouv. Dec, * ongles.' 



OF LOUISIANA. I49 

These wild cattle are much larger in body than 

ours in Europe especially in the forepart. This 

great bulk however does not prevent their moving 

very fast, so that there are very few Indians who 

can run them down. These bulls often kill those 

who have wounded them. In the season you see 

herds of two and even of four hundred. 

Many other kinds of animals are found in these 

vast plains of Louisiana, stags, deer, beaver and 

otter* are common there, geese, swans, turtles,*}* 

poules d'inde, parrots, partridges, J and many other 

birds swarm there, the fishery is very abundant, 

and the fertility of the soil is extraordinary. 

There are boundless prairies interspersed with 

forests of tall trees, where there are all sorts of 

building timber, and among the rest excellent 

oak full like that in France and § very different 

from that in Canada. The trees are of prodigious 

girth and height, and you could find the finest 

* The rest of the sentence omitted in Margry. 
f The French has tortues, evidently " tourtres " wild pigeons. 
I There is a prodigious quantity of pelicans which have mon- 
strous beaks. Nouv. Dec, p. 193. 

§ More solid and dense than that in Canada. Ibid 194. 



150 A DESCRIPTION 

pieces in the world for ship building which can 
be carried on upon the spot, and wood could be 
brought as ballast in the ships to build all the 
vessels of France, * which would be a great 
saving to the State and would give the trees in 
our nearly exhausted forests time to grow again. 

Several kinds of fruit trees are also to be seen 
in the forests and wild grape vines which produce 
clusters about a foot and a half long which ripen 
perfectly, and of which very good wine can be 
made. There are also to be seen fields covered 
with very good hemp, which grows there naturally 
to a height of six or seven feet. To conclude, 
by the experiments "j* that we have made among 
the Islinois and the Issati, we are convinced that 
the soil is capable of producing all kinds of fruits, 
herbs and grain, and in greater abundance than the 
best lands in Europe.^ The air there is very 
temperate and healthy, the country is watered 

* Europe, Nouv. Dec, p. 194. 

f In Margry it reads : " by the essays which the Sieur de la 
Salle made among the Miamis on returning from his second 
voyage we are convinced, etc." 

J As two crops can be gathered a year. Nouv. Dec, p. 195. 



OF Louisiana. ic;i 

by countless lakes, rivers and streams, most of 
which are navigable. One is scarcely troubled at all 
by musquitoes or other noxious creatures,* and by 
cultivating the ground, people could subsist there 
from the second year, independent of provisions 
from Europe. 

This vast continent will be able in a short time 
to supply all our West India islands with bread, 
wine and meat, and our French buccaneers and 
fillibusters will be able to kill wild cattle in 
greater abundance in Louisiana than in all the 
rest of the islands, which they occupy. 

There are mines of coal, slate, iron, and the 
lumps of pure red copper which are found in 
various places, indicate that there are mines and 
perhaps other metals and minerals, which will 
one day be discovered, inasmuch as a salt and 
alum f spring has already been found among the 
Iroquois. 

We continued our route on the river Seignelay 

* The rest of this paragraph and the next omitted in Margry. 

f Margry has " salt, alum and sulphur," i p. 466. The 
Nouv. Dec, p. 196, reads "salt of alum." 



152 A DESCRIPTION 

during the rest of the month of December ; and 
at last after having sailed for a hundred and 
twenty or a hundred and thirty leagues from 
Lake Dauphin on the river Seignelay, we arrived 
at the village of the Islinois towards the close of 
the month of December, 1679.* We killed on 
the river bank only a single buffalo, and some 
poules d'indei because the Indians having set fire 
to the dry grass of all the prairies on our route, 
the deer had taken fright, and with all the 
skill adopted in hunting, we subsisted only by a 
pure Providence of God, who gives strength at 
one time that he does not at another, and by the 
greatest happiness in the world, when we had 
nothing any more to eat, we found an enormous 
buffalo mired on the bank of the river, that 
twelve of our men had difhculty in dragging to 
solid ground with a cable. 

This Islinois f village is situated at forty de- 

* Margry has January i, 1680. He says two buffalo, and 
omits from ' because " to " cable," 

f The Nouv. Decouv., inserts here "The etymology of the 
word Illinois comes as we have said from the term Illini, which 



OF LOUISIANA. 153 

grees of latitude in a somewhat marshy plain, and 
on the right bank of a river as broad as the Seine 
before Paris, which is divided"^" by very beautiful 
islands. It contains four hundred and sixty cabins, 
made like long arbors and covered with double 
mats of flat flags, so well sewed, that they are 
never penetrated by wind, snow or rain. Each 
cabin has four or five fires, and each fire has one 
or two families, who all live together in a good 
understanding.^ 

As we had foreseen, J we found the village 
empty,§ all the Indians having gone to pass the 

in the language of this nation signifies a perfect or complete 
man just as the word AUeman signifies all men, as though they 
wished to intimate that a German has the heart and bravery of 
all the men of any nation whatever." lliniwek means "we 
are men." In the form irini, lenni, itcnters into many names 
of Algonquin tribes. 

* Meuse before Namur. Nouv. Dec, p. 197. For the 
position of the village, see Parkman's Disc, of the Great West 
p. 156. It was near the present village of Utica. 

f As to the population, compare Marquette, Discovery of 
the Mississippi, p. 56 ; Voyages p. 98 ; Allouez. Rel , 1673-9, 
p. 129 ; Discov., p. 74; Membre in LeClercq., ii, p. 173. 

I This is supported by La Salle's Letter, Sept. 29, 1680, 
Margry ii, p, 36. 

§ Dec. 31, Tonty in Margry, i p. 581. He makes lat. 39° 

14 



154 ^ DESCRIPTION 

winter hunting in various places according to 
their custom. Their absence, nevertheless, put 
us in great embarrassment; provisions failed and 
we durst not take the Indian corn which the 
Islinois hide in trenches under ground to preserve 
it, and use on their return from the hunt for 
planting and subsistence till harvest. This stock 
is extremely precious in their eyes, and you could 
not give them greater offense than by touching 
it in their absence. Nevertheless, as there was no 
possibilitv of our risking a further descent without 
food, and the fire that had been set to the prairies 
had driven off all the animals, the Sieur de la 
Salle resolved to take twenty * bushels of Indian 
corn, hoping that he would be able to appease the 
Islinois by some means. 

The same day we reembarked with this new 
supply, and for four days we descended the same 
river, which runs south by west. 

On f the first day of the year 1679, J discov- 

* Margry has 30, Tonty 40. 
f This paragraph not in Margry. 

J 1680 in Nouv. Dec, p. 199, and down to "winters" 
omitted. 



OF LOUISIANA. 155 

ering one of our deserters, of whom I have here- 
tofore spoken, and that he had returned to us, only 
to seduce our men, who, moreover, were dis- 
posed to abandon us, through the fear they had 
ot suffering hunger during the winter, I made 
an exhortation after the mass, wishing a Happy 
New Year to the Sieur de la Salle and all our 
party, and after the most touching words, I begged 
all our malcontents to arm themselves with 
patience, representing to them that God v/ould 
provide for all our wants, and that if we lived in 
concert, he would raise up means to enable us to 
subsist. Father Gabriel, Father Zenobius and I 
embraced them with the most affectionate senti- 
ments, encouraging them to continue so important 
a discovery. 

Towards the end of the fourth day, while 
crossing a little lake formed by the river,* we 
observed smoke, which showed us that the In- 

* Lake Peoria. The Nouv. Dec. here abandons the original 
narrative and copies almost literally from Le Clercq, Etablisse- 
ment de la Foi, ii, pp. 153-9, beginning " called Pimiteoui." 
Nouv. Decouv., pp. 200-7. See Discovery of the Mississippi, 
pp. 94-6, La Salle in Margry, ii, p. 37. 



156 A Description 

dians were cabined near there. In fact, on the 
fifth,* about nine o'clock in the morning, we saw 
on both sides of the river a number of parrakeets *j' 
and about eighty cabins full of Indians, who did 
not perceive our canoes, until we had doubled 
a point, behind which the Islinois were camped 
within half gun shot. We were in eight canoes, 
abreast, all our men arms in hand, and allowing 
ourselves to go with the current of the river. 

We 'j' first gave the cry according to the custom 
of these nations, as though to ask whether they 
wished peace or war, because it was very im- 
portant to show resolution at the outset. At 
first the old men, the women and children took 
flight across the woods by which the river is 
bordered, the warriors ran to arms, but with so 
much confusion, that before they recovered them- 
selves, our canoes had touched land. The Sieur 
de la Salle was the first to leap ashore. 

* Tonty in Margry, i p. 53, and Le Clercq., ii, p. 153, say 
Jan. 4, 1680, La Salle, ii, p. 37, has however 5th. 

fThe French printer put peroquets, but Margry's Relation 
gives the real word " pirogues," " canoes." Compare La Salle's 
letter Margry ii, p. 37. 



OF LOUISIANA. I57 

The Indians might have been routed in the 
disorder they were in ; but as this was not our 
design, we halted in order to give the IsUnois 
time to regain confidence. One of their chiefs 
who was on the other side of the river and who 
had observed that we had refrained from firing 
on seven or eight Indians whom we might easily 
have killed, began a harangue to stop the young 
men who were preparing to discharge arrows 
across the river. Those who were encamped on 
the side where we had landed, and who had 
taken flight at first, having understood the situa- 
tion, sent two of the chief men among them to 
present the calumet from the top of a hill, soon 
after those who were on tne other side did the 
same thing and then we gave them to understand 
that we accepted the peace ; and * at the same 
time I proceeded in haste with Father Zenobius 
in the direction of the Indians who had taken 
flight, taking their children by the hand, who 

* The following down to " missionaries " is not in Margry. 



15^ A DESCRIPTION 

were all trembling with fear ; we manifested 
much affection for them, entering with the old 
men and the mothers * into the cabins, taking 
compassion on these souls, which are going to 
destruction, being deprived of the word of God 
and lacking missionaries. The joy of both was 
as great as their fear had been violent; that of 
some having been such that it was two f days be- 
fore they returned from the places to which they 
had gone to hide. 

After ;j; the rejoicings, the dances and feasts to 
which they devoted the day, we assembled the 
chiefs of the villages, which wene on both sides 
of the river ; we§ made known by our interpreter, 
that we. Recollects, had not come among them to 
gather beaver, but to give them a knowledge of 
the great Master of Life, and to instruct their 

* The Nouv. Dec, p. 202, has Maitres, here for meres. 

t " Three " in Margry, i p. 468, ii, p. 38. 

I Down to " friendship " omitted in Margry. 

§ *' We told them that we had come among them only to make 
known to them the true God, to protect them against their ene- 
mies and to bring them fire arms of which they had no knowl- 
edge, and the other comforts of life. We heard, etc." Nouv. 
Dec, p. 203. 



OF LOUISIANA. 159 

children ; that we had left our country which was 
beyond the sea to come and dwell among them, 
and to be of the number of their greatest friends. 

We heard a great chorus of voices, Tepatoui 
Nicka, which means : " See what is good, my 
brother, you have a mind well made to conceive 
this thought," and at the same time they rubbed 
our legs down to the sole of the feet near the fire 
with bear's oil and buffalo grease to relieve our 
fatigue. They put the first three morsels of meat 
in our mouth with extraordinary marks of friend- 
ship. 

Immediately after the Sieur de la Salle made 
them a present of tobacco and some axes. He 
told them that he had convoked them to treat of 
an aifair, which he wished to explain to them, 
before he spoke to them of any other ; that he 
knew how necessary corn * was to them ; that 
nevertheless, the want of provisions in which he 
found himself on arriving at their village, and the 

* " The corn they had in reserve." Margry, i, p. 468, ii, p. 
39. This account is substantially the same in La Salle's letter, ii, 
p. 32, etc. 



l6o A DESCRIPTION 

impossibility of finding any game on the prairies, 
had obliged him to take a certain quantity of In- 
dian corn, which he had in his canoes, and which 
he had not yet touched; that if they were willing 
to leave it in his hands, he would give them in ex- 
change axes and other things which they needed, 
and that if they could not spare it, they were tree 
to take it back ; but that if they could not supply 
him the provisions necessary for his subsistence 
and that of his men, he would go to their neighbors 
the Osages, * who would furnish him some on 
paying for it, and that in return he would leave 
with them the blacksmith whom he had brought 
to mend their axes and other instruments.! 

He spoke to them in this manner, because he 
was well aware that the Islinois would not fail to 
bejealous of the advantages that the French might 
give their neighbors, and especially that they 

* These words omitted in Nouv. Dec, p, 205. 

■f " Which we Europeans might give them in future. The 
Indians granted Mr. de la Salle what he wished and we made 
an alliance with them. To render this alliance firm and in. 
violable which we contracted with the Illinois, we had to tajce 
several necessary precautions." 



OF LOUISIANA. l6l 

would derive from a blacksmith, of whom they 
were themselves excessively in need. They 
accordingly accepted with great demonstrations 
of joy the payment that he offered them for their 
Indian corn. They even gave more and earnestly 
begged us to settle among them. 

We answered that we would do so willingly, 
but that as the Iroquois were subjects of the 
king and consequently our brethren, we could 
not make war on them ; that for this reason we 
exhorted them to make peace with that nation, 
that we would aid them to do so, and that if in 
spite of our remonstrances, that haughty nation 
came to attack them, we would defend them 
provided they permitted us to build a fort, in 
which we could make head against the Iroquois 
with the few Frenchmen that we had ; that we 
would even furnish them arms and ammunition, 
provided they used them only to repel their ene- 
mies, and did not employ against the nations that 
lived under the protection of the king whom the 
Indians call the Great Chief who is beyond the 
great lake. 



1 62 A DESCRIPTION 

We then added that we also intended to bring 
over other Frenchmen who would protect them 
from the attacks of all their enemies, and would 
furnish all that they needed ; that we were hin- 
dered only by the length and difficulty of the way. 
That to surmount this obstacle, we had resolved 
to build a great wooden canoe to sail down to 
the sea, and bring them all kinds of merchandise 
by that shorter and more easy way. But as this 
enterprise required a great outlay, we wished to 
learn whether their river was navigable to the 
sea, and whether other Europeons dwelt near its 
mouth. 

The Islinois replied that they accepted all our 
proposals, and that they would assist us as far as 
they could. Then they gave a description of the 
river Colbert or Meschasipi ; they told us won- 
ders of its width, and beauty, and they assured us 
that the navigation was free and easy, and that 
there were no Europeans near its mouth; but 
what most convinced us that this river was navi- 
gable, is that they named four nations to us, of 
whom there is mention in the Relation of the 



OF LOUISIANA. 1 63 

Voyage of Ferdinand Soto, in Florida ; these are, 
the Tula, Casquin,* Cicaca and Daminoia. They 
added that prisoners whom they had taken in war 
in the direction of the sea, said that they had seen 
ships far out which made discharges, that re- 
sembled thunder, but that they were not settled 
on the coast, because if they were there, they 
(the Indians), would not neglect to go and trade 
with them, the sea being distant only twenty 
days in their canoes. 

The -j- day passed in this way to our mutual 
satisfaction, but things did not remain long in this 
state. 

* Casquia in Margry i p. 470. For these places see Smith's 
Narratives of the Career of Hernando de Soto, Tula, pp. 305 ; 
Casqui, no, 250 ; Chicasa, 92, 247; Aminoya, 167. The 
term Chicasa is easily identified, as the tribe held the same 
territory from the days of De Soto to the present century. 
Casqui may be Kaskaskia, but it is not easy to see how La 
Salle recognized Tula and Aminoya in any Indian tribe of his 
time. 

f Paragraph omitted in Margry, r p. 470, but appears partly 
in La Salle's letter, ii, p. 41. 



164 A DESCRIPTION 

The next day one of the chiefs of the Miamis * 
named Monso, arrived accompanied by five or six 
others loaded with kettles, axes, and knives in 
order by these presents to prepare the mind of the 
Islinois to believe what he was to say to them. He 
secretly assembled the sachems and assured them 
that we j" intended to go and join their enemies, 
who live beyond the great river Colbert, [j^that 
we would furnish them arms and ammunition, 
and that after having assembled them we would 
join the Iroquois, and hem them in on all sides 
to exterminate them entirely ; that we were 
friends of the Iroquois, that the French had a 
fort in the midst of the Iroquois country, that 
we would furnish them arms and powder, and 
that there was no other means of avoiding their 
ruin, than by preventing our voyage or at least 
delaying it, because a part of our men would 

* From F. Allouez's mission according to LaSalle's letter, 
Margry ii p. 41, lOO, where Monso is said to mean a Deer, but 
the Chippewa Mons, is our Moose, Baraga p. 252. The 
Nouv. Dec, calls him a Maskoutens. 

f " The Sieur de la Salle " is here and generally in Margry 
substituted for Hennepin's " we." 

I Omitted in Margry. 



OF LOUISIANA. 1 65 

soon abandon us, and that they should not believe 
anything we might tell them. 

After having said many things of the kind, the 
Miami chief returned by night with as much 
secresy as he came lest we might discover all this 
mystery. 

Nevertheless one of the Islinois chiefs named 
Omaouha * whom we had gained on arriving by 
a present of two axes and three knives, came to 
see us the next morning and secretly informed us 
of all that had passed. We thanked him and to 
induce him to keep us informed of all that went 
on, we made him a new present of powder and 
lead,f easily judging that this Miamis had been 
sent and instructed by other Frenchmen, jealous 
of our success, because this Monso did not know 
us, and had not even been within four hun- 
dred leagues of Fort Frontenac, and that never- 
theless, he had spoken of our affairs with as 

* Omoahoha, in Margry 1 p. 471, ii p. 42, where La Salle 
calls him chief of the Koeracocnetanon. He is not mentioned 
in the Nouv. Decouv. 

f "The Sieur de la Salle and all his men judged, etc.," in 
Margry, and " us, our," reads " him, his." 



r66 A DESCRIPTION 

much detail and circumstantiality as though he 
had known us all his life. 

This affair gave us all the more uneasiness, 
because we knew that Indians are naturally sus- 
picious and because many bad impressions had 
already been made on our men to induce them to 
desert, as * six of their comrades had already done 
at one stroke. 

In the afternoon of the same day, Nicanape, 
brother of Chassagouasse,"j* the most important 
of the Islinois chiefs, who was then absent, invited 
us all to a feast, and when all were seated in the 
cabin, Nicanape took the word, and made us J 
an address very different from those which the 
sachems had made us at his arrival, saying that he 
had not invited us, so much to give us good 
cheer as to cure our mind of the disease which 
we had, wishing to descend the great river, 

* " Their comrades had done at Missilimakinak," Margry. 

f Chassagoac. lb. He accompanied F. Marquette from 
Green Bay. Disc, of the iVIississippi, p. 259. 

X Margry has "■' the Sieur de la Salle," and apparently this 
was Hennepin's original reading. 



OF LOUISIANA. 167 

which no one had ever yet done without perish- 
ing there, that its banks were inhabited by an 
infinite number of barbarous nations, who would 
overwhelm the French by their numbers, what- 
ever arms and whatever valor they might possess; 
that this river was full of monsters, tritons,* 
crocodiles, and serpents, and even if the size of 
our canoe should protect us from this danger, 
there was another and inevitable one, that the 
lower part of the river was full of falls and preci- 
pices with a current above them so evident,']' 
that men go down helplessly, and that all 
these precipices ended in a gulf where the 
river was lost under ground, without any 
one's knowing whither it went. He added to 
this so many circumstances and pronounced his 
address so seriously with so many marks of good 
will, that our men who were not all accustomed 
to the manners of the Indians and two ^' of whom 
understood the language, were shaken by it. We 
marked their apprehension in their faces, but as 

* Tritons, crocodiles omitted in Margry. 

t " Violent," in Margry. 

J Two or three, Margry i, p. 472. 



1 68 A DESCRIPTION 

it is not the custom to interrupt Indians, and by 
doing so, we should only have increased the sus- 
picion of our men, we let Iiim finish his speech 
in peace, and then we replied without any emo- 
tion, that we were very much obliged to him for 
the information he gave us, and that we should 
acquire all the more glory, if we found difficulties 
to overcome ; that we all served * the great 
Master of the life of men, and him f who was 
the greatest of all the chiefs who commanded 
bevond the sea ; that we esteemed ourselves 
happy to die, while bearing J the name of both 
to the very end of the earth ; but that we feared 
that all that he had told us, was only an invention 
of his friendship to prevent our leaving his nation, 
or rather that it was only an artifice of some evil 
spirit who had given them some distrust of our 

* Down to "who was " omitted. Margry. 

f Of our chiefs ; that he commanded the sea and all the 
world -, that we should deem ourselves happy to die bearing the 
name of the great chief of heaven and of him who had sent us 
to the end of the world. Nouv. Dec, p. 210. 

I His name. lb. 



OF LOUISIANA. 169 

plans, although they were full of sincerity ; that 
if the Islinois had any real friendship for us, they 
should not dissemble the grounds of their uneasi- 
ness, from which we should endeavor to deliver 
them, that otherwise we should have reason to 
believe, that the friendship they manifested for 
us on our arrival was only on their lips. 

Nicanape remained unable to reply, and pre- 
senting us food changed his discourse.* 

After the meal our interpreter f took up the 
word again, and told him that we were not sur- 
prised that their neighbors became jealous of the 
advantages, that they would receive from the 
trade which they were going to have with the 
French, nor that they should spread reports to 
our damage, but that he was astonished to see 
them so easy to give them credence, and that 
they concealed them from the French,J who had 
so frankly revealed to them all their designs. 

* All this is substantiated by La Salle's letter, Margry ii, p 

43-4. 

t The Sieur de la Salle, lb. 
X A man, lb. 
15 



lyO A DESCRIPTION 

" We were not asleep, brother," he added, 
addressing Nicanape, "when Monso spoke to you 
in secret at night to the prejudice of the French, 
whom he depicted to you as spies of the Iroquois. 
The presents that he made you to convince you 
of his lies are still secreted in this cabin. Why 
did he take flight immediately afterwards ? Why 
did he not show himself by day, if he had only 
truth to tell ? Have you not seen that at our 
arrival we might have killed your nephews, and 
that in the confusion prevailing among them, we 
might have done alone, what they wish to per- 
suade you, we will execute with the help of the 
Iroquois, after we are settled among you, and 
have formed a friendship with your nation ? At 
this moment that I am addressing you, could not 
our French, kill all of you, old men that you are, 
while your young men are off at the hunt ; do 
you not know that the Iroquois, whom you fear, 
have experienced the valor of the French, and 
that consequently we should not need their help, 
if we intended to make war on you. But to cure 
your mind entirely, run after this imposter, whom 



OF LOUISIANA. I7I 

we will wait here to convict and confound. How 
does he know us,* since he has never seen us, and 
how can he know the plots which he says we 
have formed with the Iroquois, whom he knows 
as little as he does us? Look at our stores, they 
are only tools and goods that can but serve us to 
do you good, and which are not suited either for 
attacking or for retreating." 

These words influenced them and induced them 
to dispatch runners after Monso to bring him 
back, but the heavy snow that fell by night 
before and which covered his tracks, prevented 
their overtaking him ; nevertheless our French- 
men who had been alarmed already, were not 
relieved of their false fears. Six of them who 
were on guard, and f among them two pit-saw- 
yers, without whom we could not make a bark 
to go to the sea, fled the next night, after having 
carried off whatever they thought likely to be 
necessary to them, and exposed themselves to a 
danger of perishing and dying of hunger much 

* All this is in the first person in Margry, " my," " my 
people," "me." 

j" Margry omits to *' sea." 



172 A DESCRIPTION 

more certain than that which they sought to 
avoid.* 

The Sieur de la Salle having gone out of his 
cabin in the morning and finding no one on duty, 
he entered the cabins of his men, and found one 
where there was only a single man left, whom 
his comrades had not notified, because he was 
suspected by them. He called them all together 
and asked for information in regard to these 
deserters. Then he expressed his displeasure 
that they should have deserted against the King's 
orders and all justice, and abandoned him at the 
time when they were most necessary to him, 
after he had done everything for them. To 
counteract the bad impression that this desertion 
might produce in the mind of the Islinois he 
ordered them to say that their comrades had gone 
off by his order, and said that he was well able 
to pursue and punish them as an example, but 
that he did not wish to let the Indians know how 
little fidelity there was among the French. He 

* The proceedings against these deserters will be fouud in 
Margry 2 p. 103, etc. 



OF LOUISIANA. 1 73 

exhorted them to be more faithful to him than 
these runaways, and not to go to such extremes 
through fear of the dangers which Nicanape had 
falsely exaggerated to them ; that he did not in- 
tend to take with him any but those who would 
wish to accompany him willingly, and that he 
would give them his word to leave the others at 
liberty in the spring to return to Canada, whither 
they might go without risk and by canoe, 
whereas they could not then undertake it but 
with evident peril of their lives, and with the 
disgrace of having basely abandoned him, by a 
conspiracy which could not remain unpunished 
on their arrival in Canada. * 

He endeavored to reassure in this way, but 
knowing their inconstancy, and dissembling the 
chagrin he felt at their lack of resolution, he re- 
solved to remove them from the Indians, to pre- 
clude any new subornations, and in order to make 
them consent without murmuring, he told them 
that they were not in security among the Islinois ; 
that moreover such a stay exposed them to the 

*^ At Quebec, Margry i, p. ^75, 



174 A DESCRIPTION 

arms of the Iroquois, who perhaps might come 
before * winter to attack the village, that the 
Islinois were not capable of making any resistance 
to them, that apparently they would take flight 
at the first shock, and that the Iroquois would 
not be able to overtake them, because the Islinois 
run much faster than they do ; they would vent 
their rage on the French whose small number 
would be incapable of making head against these 
savages ; that there was only one remedy, and 
that was to fortify themselves in some post easy 
of defence ; that he had found one of this kind 
near the village, where they would be proof 
against the insults of the Islinois and the arms of 
the Iroquois, who would not be able to storm them 
there, and who for this reason would not under- 
take to attack them.f 

These reasons and some others of that kind 
which J I made them, persuaded them, and 

* Margry reads: " During the," " Villages." 

f All this confirmed by La Salle's letter. Margry ii, p. 47 

J This clause not in Margry, 



OF LOUISIANA. 1 75 

brought all to work with a good grace * in 
building a fort which was called Crevecoeur -}" 
situated four days' journey from the great village 
of the Islinois descending towards the river 
Colbert.J 

* For the rest of this sentence Margry reads : " on a very 
severe undertaking for so small a party." Tonty in Margry i, 
p. 583, makes the fort begun Jany. 15, 1680. 

t The name is not given in the Nouv. Dec. The account 
of this council there, pp. 207-216, is substantially the same as 
here given. 

It is commonly supposed that La Salle dejected at the loss 
of the Griffin and his increasing difficulties called this fort 
Crevecoeur, Broken Heart, on that account. The Tonty of 1697, 
so asserts ; but at a moment when La Salle sought to encourage 
his men he would not be likely to do this. As Louis XIV, 
had recently demolished Fort Crevecoeur, a stronghold in the 
Netherlands near Bois-le-Duc, captured by him, in 1672, 
Zedler's Univ. Lexicon vi, p. 161 2-3, the name may have been 
a compliment to that monarch ; and this would explain the 
omission of the name in the Nouv. Decouverte published in 
Holland. Parkman, Discovery, p. 168, says that the site of 
the fort is still recognizable a little below Peoria. It was on 
the east side of the river. Franqueiin's map. 

I The Nouv. Decouv., pp. 217-222, here introduces matter 
from LeClercq ii pp. 1 73-1 81. Discovery of the Miss- 
issippi, pp. 150—2, making however Miamis southwest of Lake 
Michigan where LeClercq has south by east. 



176 A DESCRIPTION 

A great* thaw having set in on the 15th of 

January, and rendered the river free below the 

village, the Sieur de la Salle begged f me to 

accompany him, and we proceeded with one of 

our canoes to the place which we were going to 

select to work at this little fort. It was a little 

mound about two hundred paces distant from the 

bank of the river, which in the season of the 

rains, extends to the foot of it ; two broad deep 

ravines protected two other sides and a part of 

the fourth, which we completely entrenched by 

a ditch which united the two ravines. Their 

exterior slope which served as a counterscarp, was 

fortified, we made J chevaux de frise and cut 

this eminence down steep on all sides, and the 

earth was supported as much as was necessary 

with strong pieces of timber, with thick planks,§ 

* From this place to " after our departure," is substantially 
the same in the Nouv. Decouv, pp. 223-9. 

f '' Proceeded with all his canoes to the spot which he had 
selected to build a fort." Margry i, p. 176. 

J For " we made," Margry reads " with good." 
§ The Nouv. Dec, omits to " barracks." 



OF LOUISIANA. 177 

and for fear of any surprise, we planted a stockade 
around, the timbers of which were twenty-five 
feet long and a foot thick.* The summit of the 
mound was left in its natural figure, which formed 
an irregular square, and we contented ourselves 
with putting on the edge a good parapet of earth 
capable of covering all our force, whose barracks 
were placed in two of -j* the angles of this fort, in 
order that they might be always ready in case of 
attack. Fathers Gabriel, Zenoble and I J lodged 
in a cabin covered with boards, which we ad- 
justed with the help of our workmen and in 
which we retired after work,§ all our people for 
evening and morning prayer, and where, being 
unable any longer to say mass, the wine which we 
had made from the large grapes of the country 
having just failed us, we contented ourselves with 

* Twenty feet long and stout in proportion, Margry. 

t Margry omits " two of." 

J The Recollects were lodged in the third. The store house 
solidly constructed was placed on the fourth, and the forge 
along the curtain, which, etc., Margry i, p. 477, compare La 
Salle's letter ii, p. 49. 

§ Supply " and gathered.'' 



178 A DESCRIPTION 

singing Vespers on holidays and Sundays, and 
preaching after morning prayers. 

The forge was set up along the curtain which 
faced the wood. The Sieur de la Salle posted 
himself in the middle with the Sieur de Tonty ; 
and * wood was cut down to make charcoal for 
the blacksmith. 

While they were engaged at this work, we 
were thinking constantly only of our exploration, 
and we saw that the building of a bark would 
be very difficult on account of the desertion of 
the pit sawyers. It occurred to us one day, to 
tell our people that if there was a man of good 
will among them, who was willing to try and 
make sheathing planks there was hope of succeed- 
ing, with a little more labor and time, and that at the 
worst we should after all only spoil a few. Im- 
mediately two of our men offered to work at it. 
The trial was made and they succeeded pretty 
well, although they had never before undertaken 
a similar piece of work. We began a bark of 
forty-two feet keel, and only twelve broad. We 
* Rest of sentence not in Margry. 



OF LOUISIANA. 1 79 

pushed on the work with so much care, that not- 
withstanding the building of Fort Crevecoeur 
the sheathing was sawed, all the wood of the 
bark ready and curved * in the first of the 
month of March. -j- 

It is to be remarked that in the country of the 
Islinois, the winter is not more severe than in 
Provence, but that of the year 1679, J the snow 

* Hennepin reads " en bois tors." Margry " en chantier,'' 
on the stocks. 

t Instead of the following down to confortetur cor tuum^ the 
Margry Rel i p. 477, has merely : " At the same time the 
Sieur de la Salle proposed to have the route he was to take to 
the riverMississippi explored in advance, and the course of 
that river above and below the mouth of the Divine river or 
of the Illinois. Father Louis Henpin offered to take this 
voyage in order to begin and make acquaintance with the nations 
among whom he soon proposed to go and settle in order to 
preach the faith there. The Sieur de la Salle was reluctant to 
impose this task on him, but seeing that he was resolute, he 
consented. He gave him a calumet and a canoe with two 
men, one of whom called le Picard is now in Paris, the other 
named Michael Accault, understood moderately the Illinois 
and Nadouessioux languages. He entrusted the latter with 
some goods intended to make presents and valued at 1000 or 
1200 livres." Compare Margry 11, p. 246. 

X 1680, in Nouv. Dec, p. 226. 



l8o A DESCRIPTION 

lasted more than twenty days, which was an 
extraordinary surprise to the Indians, who had 
not yet experienced so severe a winter, so that 
the Sieur de la Salle and I saw ourselves exposed 
to new hardships, which will perhaps appear in- 
credible to those who have no experience in 
great voyages and new discoveries. 

Fort Crevecceur* was almost completed, all the 
wood had been prepared to complete the bark, 
but we had neither rigging nor sails, nor iron 
enough ; we heard no tidings of the bark which 
we had left on Lake Dauphin nor of the men 
who had been sent to learn what had become of 
her. Meanwhile the Sieur de la Salle saw that 
summer was approaching, and that if he waited 
uselessly some months more, our enterprise 
would be retarded a year, and perhaps two or 
three, because being so far from Canada, he could 
not put his affairs in any order or cause the things 
he needed to be forwarded. 

In this extremity f we both adopted a resolu- 

* This paragraph is substantially in Margry, i p. 483. 

t Margry i, p. 484, has : In this extremity, he adopted a 



OF LOUISIANA. l8l 

tion, as extraordinary as it was difficult to carry 
out, I to go with two men into unknown coun- 
tries, where one is at every moment in a great 
danger for his life, and he to proceed on foot to 
Fort Frontenac itself, a distance of more than 
five hundred leagues. We were then at the close 
of winter which had been, as we have said as 
severe in America as in France, the ground was 
still covered with snow which was neither melted 
nor able to bear a man in snow shoes. It was 
necessary to load ourselves with the usual equipage 
on these occasions, that is to say, a blanket, a 
kettle, an axe, a gun, powder, and lead, dressed 
skins to make Indian shoes, which often last only a 
day, those which are worn in France being of no 
use in these western countries. Besides this he 
must resolve to push through bushes, to walk in 
marshes, and melting snow, sometimes waist high, 
and that for whole days, sometimes even with 
nothing to eat; because he and three others who 

resolution as extraordinary as it was difficult to execute, namely 
to proceed on foot to Fort Frontenac more than five hundred 
leagues distant. We were there etc. 



1 82 A DESCRIPTION 

accompanied him, could not carry provisions, 
being compelled to depend for all their subsistence 
on what they might shoot, and expect to drink 
only the water they might find on the way. To 
conclude he was exposed every day and especially 
night to be surprised by four or five nations which 
made war on each other, with this difference, that 
these nations where he was to pass, all know the 
French, and that those where I was going had 
never seen Europeans. Nevertheless all these 

difficulties did not astonish him * any more than 
they did me. Our only trouble was to find among 

our force, some men robust enough to go with us> 
and to prevent the others, already greatly fluctua- 
ting, from all deserting after our departure. 

Some f days after we fortunately found means 
to disabuse our people of the false impressions 
which the Islinois had produced on them at the 
instigation of Monso, chief of the Miamis.J 
Some Indians arrived at the village of the Islinois 

* Margry continues *' and his only trouble was, etc. 
fThis is virtually in Margry, i p. 485. 
J Maskoutens. Nouv. Dec, p. 230. 



OF LOUISIANA. 183 

from these remote nations, and one of them assured 
us of the beauty of the great river Colbert or 
Meschasipi. We were confirmed in it by the 
report of several Indians, and by a private Islinois, 
w^ho told us in secret on our arrival that it was 
navigable. Nevertheless this account did not 
suffice to disabuse our people and completely 
reassure them. We wished to make the Islinois 
themselves avow it, although we had learned 
that they had resolved in council always to tell 
us the same thing. Soon after a favorable occasion 
presented itself. 

A young Islinois warrior who had taken some 
prisoners in the direction of the south and who 
had come on ahead of his comrades, passed to our 
shipyard. They gave him some Indian corn to 
eat. As he was returning from the lower part 
of the river Colbert, of which we pretended to 
have some knowledge, this young man traced 
for us with coal, a pretty exact map, assuring us 
that he had been everywhere in his periagua ; 
that there was not down to the sea, which the 
Indians call the great lake, either falls or rapids. 



184 A DESCRIPTION 

But that as this river became very broad, there 
w^ere in some places sand banks and mud w^hich 
barred a part of it. He also told us the name of 
the nations that lived on its bank, and of the 
rivers w^hich it receives. I wrote them down and 
I will be able to give an account thereof in a 
second volume of our Discovery.* 

We thanked him by a small present, for having 
revealed to us the truth, which the chief men of 
his Islinois nation had disguised from us. He 
begged us not to tell them, and an axe was given 
to him to close his mouth after the fashion of the 
Indians when they wish to enjoin secrecy. 

The next morning after our public prayers, we 
went to the village where we found the Islinois 
assembled in the cabin of one of the most impor- 
tant who was giving a bear feast, which is a meat 
that they esteem highly. They made place for 
us among them on a fine mat of flags, which they 
spread for us. We told them through one of 
their men, who knew the language, that we 
wished to make known to them, that He who 

* This is in La Salle's letter. Margry, ii p. 54. 



OF LOUISIANA. 1 85 

has made all, whom we call the great Master of 
Life, takes a particular care of the French, that 
he had done us the favor to instruct us as to the 
condition of the great river, called by us Colbert, 
as to which we had difficulty in ascertaining the 
truth, since they had rendered it impossible for us 
to navigate, and then we informed them what 
we had learned the day before. 

These savages thought that we had learned 
all these things by some extraordinary way ; and 
after having closed the mouth with their hand, 
which is a way that they often employ to express 
their surprise, they told us that it was only the 
desire which they had to retain our chief with 
the Greygowns or Bare feet (as all the Indians of 
of America call our Religious of Saint Francis) 
to remain with them, had obliged them to con- 
ceal the truth. They confirmed all that we had 
learned from the young warrior, and have since 
always persisted in the same opinion. 

This affair greatly diminished the fears of our 
Frenchmen, and they were entirely delivered 
16 



1 86 A DESCRIPTION 

from them by the arrival of several Osages, 
Ciccaca and Akansa,* who had come from the 
southward in order to see the French and to buy 
axes. They all bore witness that the river was navi- 
gable to the sea, and that as the coming of the 
French was made known,-]- all the nations of the 
lower part of the river Colbert would come to 
dance the Calumet of Peace to us, in order to 
maintain a good understanding, and trade with 
the French nation. 

The Miamis came at the same time to dance 
the calumet to the Islinois, and made an alliance 
with them against the Iroquois their common 
enemy. The Sieur de la Salle niade some presents 
to unite these two nations more firmly together. 

Seeing that we were three Recollect mission- 
aries with the few Frenchmen whom we had at 
Fort Crevecoeur, and having no more wine to 

* The Osages from the Missouri ; the Chickasaws and 
Akansas or Quappas from the lower Mississippi. Akansa, 
Alkansas, Arkansas is the Algonquin name for the Quappas a 
Dacota tribe driven from the Ohio river. Gravier's Journal. 

■\ "They would be very well received." Margry I, p. 487. 



OF LOUISIANA. 1 87 

say mass. Father Gabriel who had need of relief 
at his advanced age, declared that he would 
willingly remain alone at the fort with our 
Frenchmen. Father Zenoble * who had desired 
to have the great mission of the Islinois, composed 
of about seven or eight thousand souls, began to 
weary of it, finding it difficult to adapt himself 
to the importunate manners of the Indians, with 
whom he dwelt. We spoke about it to the Sieur 
de la Salle, who made a present of three axes to 
the Father's host, by name Oumahouha, that is 
to say, the Wolf, who was the chief of a family 
or tribe, in order that he might take care to 
maintain the Father, whom this chief called his 
son, and who lodged him and considered him as 
one of his children. 

This Father who was only half a league from 
the fort, came to explain to us the subject of his 
troubles, telling us, that he was not yet accustomed 
to the ideas of the Indians, that nevertheless he 
already knew a part of their language. I offered 

* Zenobe is frequently written thus in documents of this time. 
Margry by a blunder in one place makes another man Le Noble, 



1 88 A DESCRIPTION 

to take his mission, provided he would go in my 
place to the remote nations of whom we had as 
yet no knowledge, as that which the Indians had 
given us was only superficial. This set the 
Father thinking, and he preferred to remain with 
the Islinois, of whom he had some knowledge, 
rather than expose himself to go among unknown 
nations. 

The Sieur de la Salle left in Fort Crevecoeur 
the Sieur de Tonty as commandant, with some 
soldiers and the carpenters who were employed 
building the bark intended for the attempt to 
descend to the sea by the river Colbert, in order 
to be by this means, protected from the arrows 
of the Indians in this vessel. He left him powder 
and lead, a blacksmith, guns and other arms to 
defend themselves, in case they were attacked by 
the Iroquois. He gave him instructions to re- 
main in his fort, and before returning to Fort 
Frontenac, to go and get a reinforcement, cables 
and rigging for the last bark, which he left built 
up to the ribband,""-'- he begged me to consent 

* See proceedings against Deserters. Margry ii, p. 103. It 
had four planks on each side. 



OF LOUISIANA. 1 89 

to take the pains to go and explore in advance 
the route which he would have to take to the 
river Colbert on his return from Canada,* but as 
I had an abscess in the mouth, which suppurated 
continually, and which had continued for a year 
and a half, I manifested to him my repugnance, 
and told him that I needed to return to Canada 
to have it treated. He replied that if I refused 
this voyage, that he would write to my superiors, 
that I would be the cause of the want of success 
of our new missions. 

The Reverend Father Gabriel de la Ribourde 
who had been my Father Master in the Novitiate, 
begged me to proceed, saying that if I died of 
this infirmity, God would be one day glorified 
by my apostolic labors. '* It is true, my son," 
said this venerable old man to me ; who had 
whitened more than forty years in the austerity 

* La Salle, Margry ii, p. 54, says that Indians called Chaa 
who lived up the Mississippi visited him and invited him to 
their country, and that Hennepin offered to go with two of his 
bravest men. It is not easy to tell who the Chaa were, unless 
we take it to be a misprint for bisan, one Algonquin name for 
the Sioux. 



IQO A DESCRIPTION 

of penance, " that you will have many monsters 
to overcome, and precipices to pass in this enter- 
prise, which demands the strength of the most 
robust. You do not know a word of the language 
of these nations, whom you going to try and gain 
to God, but courage, you will gain as many 
victories as combats." 

Considering that this Father had at his age 
volunteered to come and aid me in my second 
year of our new discovery, in the view that he 
had to announce Jesus Christ to the unknown 
nations, and that this aged man was the only 
male child and heir of his father's house, who 
was a gentleman of Burgundy, I offered to un- 
dertake this voyage to endeavor to go and form 
an acquaintance with the nations among whom I 
hoped soon to settle in order to preach the faith. 
The Sieur de la Salle told me that I gratified him. 
He gave me a peace calumet and a canoe with 
two men, one of whom was called the Picard du 
Gay, who is now in Paris, and the other Michael 



OF LOUISIANA. I9I 

Ako.* He entrusted this latter with some goods 
intended to make presents, which were worth a 
thousand or twelve hundred livres, and he gave 
me ten knives, twelve awls, a small roll of tobacco, 
to give the Indians, about two pounds of black 
and white beads, and a small package of needles, 
assuring me that he would have given me more, 
if he had been able. In fact he is very liberal to 
his friends. 

* Compare La Salle's letter, Margry ii, p. 55. Moyse Hil- 
larct (lb. p. 108) says Aug. 17, 1680: "Feb. 28, the 
Recollect ¥. Louis and the said Accault and Picard went to 
trade with the Sioux," showing that this was the opinion in the 
fort of the object of their voyage. Tonty in Margry i, p. 
583, says : " Sometime after the Reverend Father Louis Hen- 
nepin set out with Michael and Picard for the country of the 
Sioux." See too Tonty, Memoire, p. 8. La Salle in Margry 
ji, p. 245, etc., gives an account and justifies sending them, see 
Appendix. 

Of his two companions Michael Accault is deemed by some 
the real head of the party. After La Salle's force were ennobled 
by his discoveries, this man became the Sieur d' Accault, (d'Alco 
d'acau, Dacan) just as honest Pierre You, blossomed out into 
Pierre You d' Youville de la Decouverte. The Picard's real name 
was Anthony Auguelle. In this volume, printed at Paris, Henne- 
pin very naturally mentions Auguelle's being there. The Mar 
gry document says the same, but La Salle would have referred 
to Hennepin, not to Augnelle, had he known where they were. 



192 A DESCRIPTION 

Having received the blessing of the reverend 
Father Gabriel and leave from the Sieur de la 
Salle, and after having embraced all our men 
who came to escort us to our place of embarking 
Father Gabriel finishing his adieus by these words : 
Viriliter age et confortetur cor tuum,\ we set out 
from Fort Crevecoeur the 29th of February, 1680, 
and toward evening, while descending the river 
Seignelay, we met on our way several parties of 
Islinois returning to their village in their periaguas 
or gondolas, loaded with meat. They would have 
obliged us to return, our two boatmen were 
strongly influenced, but as they would have had 
to pass by Fort Crevecoeur, where our Frenchmen 
would have stopped them, we pursued our way 
the next day, and my two men afterward con- 
fessed the design which they had entertained. 

The river Seignelay on which we were sailing, 
is as deep and broad as the Seine at Paris, and in 
two or three places widens out to a quarter of a 

fThis from " Some days after" is reproduced with some ab- 
ridgment in the Nouv. Dec, ch. xxxv, pp. 230-240. 



OF LOUISIANA. I93 

league.* It is skirted by hills, whose sides are 
covered with fine large trees. Some of these hills 
are half a league apart, leaving between them a 
marshy strip, often inundated, especially in the 
autumn and spring, but producing, nevertheless, 
very large trees. On ascending these hills, you 
discover prairies further than the eye can reach, 
studded, at intervals, with groves of tall trees, 
apparently planted there intentionally. The 
current of the river is not perceptible, except in 
time of great rains ; it is at all times navigable 
for large barks about a hundred leagues,f from its 
mouth to the Islinois village, whence its course 
almost always runs south by west. 

On the 7th of March, we found, about two 
leagues from its mouth, a nation called Tamaroa, 
or Maroa, composed of two hundred families. 
They would have taken us to their village lying 
west of the river Colbert, six or seven leagues 
below the mouth of the river Seignelay ; but our 
two canoemen, in hopes of still greater gain, pre- 

* One or two leagues. Margry i, p. 478. The Nouv. Dec. 
says at the Meuse at Namur. 



194- A DESCRIPTION 

ferred to pass on, according to the advice I then 
gave them. These* last Indians seeing that we 
carried iron and arms to their enemies, and unable 
to overtake us in their periaguas, which arc 
wooden canoes, much heavier than our bark one, 
which went much faster than their boats, des- 
patched some of their young men after us by land, 
to pierce us with their arrows at some narrow part 
of the river, but in vain ; for soon after discover- 
ing the fire made by these warriors at their am- 
buscade, we promptly crossed the river, gained 
the other side, and encamped in an island, leaving 
our canoe loaded and our little dog to wake us, 
so as to embark more expeditiously, should the 
Indians attempt to surprise us by swimming across. 

Soon after leaving these Indians, we came to 
the mouth of the river Seignelay, fifty leagues 
distant from Fort Crevecoeur, and about a hun- 
dred f leagues from the great Islinois village. It 
lies between 36° and 37° J N. latitude, and 

* Omitted in Margry. 

t Ninety, Margry i, p. 479, ii, p. 247. 

I 35° and 36°. Nouv. Dec, p. 245. 



OF LOUISIANA. I95 

consequently one hundred and twenty or thirty 
leagues from the gulf of JNIexico. 

In the angle formed on the south by this river, 
at its mouth, is a flat precipitous rock, about forty 
feet high, very well suited for building a fort. 
On the northern side, opposite the rock, and on 
tha west side beyond the river, are fields of black 
earth, the end of which you can not see, all ready 
for cultivation, which would be very advantageous 
for the existence of a colony. 

The ice which floated down from the north 
kept us in this place till the i 2th of March, whence 
we continued our route, traversing J the river and 
sounding on all sides to see whether it was navi- 
gable. There are, indeed, three islets in the 
middle, near the mouth of the river Seignclay, 
which stop the floating wood and trees from the 
north, and form several large sand-bars, yet the 
channels are deep enough, and there is sufficient 
water for barks ; large flat-boats can pass there at 
all times. 

I " Ascending along the river " concludes the paragraph, in 
Margry i, p. 479. 



196 A DESCRIPTION 

The River Colbert runs south southwest, and 
comes from the north and northwest ; it runs 
between two chains of mountains, very small 
here, which wind with the river, and in some 
places are pretty far from the banks, so that be- 
tween the mountains and the river, there are large 
prairies, where you often see herds of wild cattle 
browsing. In other places these eminences leave 
semi- circular spots covered with grass or wood. 
Beyond these mountains you discover vast plains, 
but the more we approach the northern side 
ascending, the earth did not appear to us so fertile, 
nor the woods so beautiful as in the Islinois 
country. 

This great river is almost everywhere a 
short league * in width, and in some place, two 
leagues ; it is divided by a number of islands 
covered with trees, interlaced with so many vines 
as to be almost impassable. It receives no con- 
siderable river on the western side except that of 
the Otontenta,-!" and another, which comes from 

* " One or two leagues in width and is dii^ided, etc." Margry 
I, p. 479. 

f Outoutanta, in Margry who omits the rest of the sentence. 



OF LOUISIANA. I97 

the west northwest, seven or eight leagues from 
the Falls of St. Anthony of Padua.* 

On the eastern side you meet first an "j" incon- 
siderable river, and then further on another, 
called by the Indians Onisconsin, or Misconsin, 
which comes from the east and east-northeast. 
Sixty leagues up you leave it, and make a portage 
of half a league to reach the Bay of the Puans 
by another river which, near its sourse, meanders 
most curiously. It is almost as broad as the river 
Seignelay, or Islinois, and empties into the river 
Colbert, a hundred leagues above the river 
Seignelay. 

Twenty-four J leagues above, you come to the 
Black river called by the Nadouessious, or Islati, 
Chabadeba, or Chabaoudeba, it seems inconsider- 

* After this paragraph the Nouv. Decouv. introduces the 
voyage down the Mississippi and then repeats the paragraph, p. 
313, after an introductory statement. Appendix B. 

f Margry omits to " another " and has " first the river " 
called, etc. The Nouv. Dec. has Ouisconsin, LaSalle (Margry 
ii, p. 249) gives also the name Meschetz Odeba and mentions 
the rock at the south and prairie north of its mouth. 

t Twenty-three or twenty-four. Margry. 



198 A DESCRIPTION 

able. Thirty leagues higher up, you find the 
lake of Tears,* which we so named, because the 
Indians who had taken us, wishing to kill us, 
some of them wept the whole night, to induce 
the others to consent to our death. This lake 
which is formed by the river Colbert, is seven 
leagues long, and about four wide ; there is no 
considerable current in the middle that we could 
perceive, but only at its entrance and exit.f 
Half a league below the lake of Tears, on the 
south side, is Buffalo river, full of turtles. It is 
so called by the Indians on account of the 
numbers of buffalo found there. We followed 
it for ten or twelve leagues ; it empties with 
rapidity into the river Colbert, but as you ascend 
• it, it is always gentle and free from rapids. It is 
skirted by mountains, far enough off in some 
places to form prairies. The mouth is wooded on 

* Lake Pepin. 

f Margry omits down to " Buffalo river." The Nouv. 
Dec. has "• twenty five leagues," "Issati." It makes the Lakes 
of Tears three leagues wide and the distance to the River of 
Wild Bulls a good league. 



OF LOUISIANA. IQQ 

both sides, and is full as wide as that of the Seig- 
nelay. 

Forty leagues above is a river full of rapids, 
by which, striking northwest, you can proceed 
to Lake Conde, as far as Nimissakouat * river, 
which empties into that lake. This first river 
is called Tomb river, f because the Issati left 
there the body of one of their warriors, killed 
by a rattlesnake, on whom according to their cus- 
tom, I put a blanket. This act of hu- 
manity gained me much importance by the 
gratitude displayed by the men of the deceased's 
tribe, in a great banquet which they gave me in 
their country, and to which more than a hundred 
Indians were invited. 

Continuing to ascend this river ten or twelve t- 

* Nemitsakouat, Margry. Nisslpikouet, Nouv. Dec. 
This is probably the St. Louis of the map of the Jesuit Relation 
of j6yo-ji^ marked as the way to the Sioux, sixty leagues 
west, being nearly the distance here given by Hennepin between 
Mille Lake and Lake Superior. 

t St. Croix. 

X Margry i, (p. 480,) says 80. 



200 A DESCRIPTION 

leagues more, the navigation is interrupted by a 
cataract which I called the Falls of St. Anthony 
of Padua, in gratitude for the favors done me by 
the Almighty through the intercession of that 
great saint, whom we had chosen patron and 
protector of all our enterprises. This cataract is 
forty or fifty * feet high, divided in the middle 
of its fall by a rocky island of pyramidal form.j^ 
The high mountains which skirt the river Colbert 
last only as far as the river Onisconsin, about 
one hundred and twenty leagues ; at this place 
it begins to flow from the west and northwest 
without our having been able to learn from the 
Indians, who have ascended it very far, the spot 
where this river rises. They merely told us, 
that twenty or thirty leagues below, j there is a 
second fall, at the foot of which are some villages 
of the prairie people, called Thinthonha,§ who 

* Margry says 30 or 40. The Nouv. Dec. 50 or 60, p. 313. 
f Margry carries the mountains up to the falls of St. Anthony. 

X For "below"' (dessous) the Nouv. Dec. has '"above" 
(dessus). 

§ The Titonwan, Minnesota Hist. Coll. i, p. 297. 



OF LOUISIANA. 20I 

live there a part of the year. Eight leagues 
above St. Antliony of Padua's falls on the right, 
you find the river of the Issati or Nadoussion,* 
with a very narrow mouth, which you can ascend 
to the north for about seventy j- leagues to Lake 
Buade or of the Issati J where it rises. We gave 
this river the name of St. Francis. This last lake 
spreads out into great marshes, producing wild 
rice, like many other places down to the ex- 
tremity of the Bay of the Puans. This kind of 
grain grows in marshy places without any one 
sowing it : it resembles oats, but tastes better, 
and the stalks are longer as well as the ear. The 
Indians gather it in due season. The women tie 
several ears together with white wood bark to 
prevent its being all devoured by the flocks of 
duck and teal found there. The Indians lay in 
* Rum River. 

t Fifty, Margry. 

I Here the Nouv. Dec. strangely adds " where I was made 
a slave by these savages." The lake is Mille Lake. 
17 



202 A DESCRIPTION 

a stock for part of the year, and to eat out of the 
hunting season.* 

Lake Buad-e, or Lake of the Issati, is situated 
about seventy f leagues west of Lake Conde ; it is 
impossible to go from one to the other by land on 
account of the marshy and quaggy nature of the 
ground ; you might go, though with difficulty 
on the snow in snowshoes ; by water there are 
many portages and it is a hundred and fifty 
leagues, on account of the many turns to be 
made. From Lake Conde, to go conveniently 
in canoe, you must pass by Tomb river, where 
we found only the skeleton of the Indian whom I 
mentioned above, the bears having eaten the flesh, 
and pulled up poles which the deceased's relatives 
had planted in form of a monument. One of 
our boatmen found a war-calumet beside the 
grave, and an earthen pot upset, in which the 
Indians had left fat buffalo meat, to assist the 
departed, as they say, in making his journey to 
the land of souls. 

* Abridged in Margry. 

t Sixty in Margry and he omits the rest of the paragraph. 



OF LOUISIANA. 203 

In the neighborhood of Lake Buade are many 
other lakes, whence issue several rivers, on the 
banks of which live the Issati, Nadouessans, 
Tinthonha (which means prairie-men), Ouade- 
bathon * River People, Chongaskethon f Dog, 
or Wolf tribe (for chonga among these nations 
means dog or wolf), and other tribes, all which 
we comprise under the name Nadonessiou.J 
These Indians number eight or nine thousand 
warriors, very brave, great runners, and very good 
bowmen. It was by a part of these tribes that I 
and our two canoemen were taken in the follow- 
ing way. 

We scrupulously said our morning and evening 
prayers every day on embarking, and the Angelus 
at noon, adding some paraphrases on the Response 
of St. Bonaventure, Cardinal, in honor of St. 

* Onadebaton, Margry. The Warpetonwan. Minn. Hist. 
Coll., I, p. 296. 

f The Sissitonwan. Minn. Hist. Coll, 1, p. 296. 

J Nadouessiou is not a Dakota word, but the Chippewa 
name for this tribe. Nadowessiwag, Baraga, Diet. p. 250. The 
Algonquin name for the Iroquois Nadowe, Nottoway, is nearly 
the same and probably means Cruel. 



204- A DRSCRIPTION 

Anthony oi P:uhi;i. In tins way wc begged of 
CJod to incot iIr'sc IiuliaiivS by day, (or wlieii they 
discover pc-oplc at night, they kill them as 
enemies, to rol> those whom they murder secretly 
ol some axes or knives which they v;due more 
th;iii we do golil ami silver ; they even kill their 
own allies, when they can ct)nceal their death, so 
as aiterward to hoast ol having killed men, and 
thus piiss lor soldiers.'" 

Wc" had e(Misidei(Hl the river Colbert with 
great pleasme, and without hindrance, to know 
whether it was navigable up and down : we 
were K)adeil with seven or eight large turkeys, 
which midtiply ol themselves in these parts. We 
wanted neither butialo nor deer, nor beaver, nor 
lish, nor bear meal, iov we killeil those animals 
us they swam across the river. 

Our prayers were hearil when, on the i ith of 

* This pai;>gr;i|>li oiniidil by Margiy. I'hc narrative ot" the 
capiivity ai)il deliver. uuc as |;iven in Margry, will be toiiiui in 
the .ippeiuiix H. 



OK r.OUISIANA. 205 

April, 1680,* at two o'cloik in tin- allci iiooti, 
vvc suddenly perceived thirty-three hark cain)es, 
manned hy a hundred aiui twenty Indians, loin- 
ing down with extraonlinary speeil, to make war 
on the Miamis, Islinois, and IV[aroha.|' These 
Indians surroundeii us, and while at a distance, 
discharged some arrows at us; hut as they ap- 
proached our canoe the i)l(l men seeing us with 
the c alumet ol peace in owv hands, prevented the 
young men Irom killing us. These hrulal men 
leaping from their canoes, some on laiul, others 
into the water with Irightiid cries and yells, wp- 
proachcd us, and as we made no rc^sistance, hc-ing 
only three against so great a nund)(r, one of 
them vvrencheil oui caliunet Irom oui- hands, 
while oiu- canoe and theirs were made last to the 

* The Nouv. I^ecouv. says I2tli. His men were cookinjf a 
turkey and he was patching the caiioe^ p. 314. He says 50 
canoes. La Salle in liis letter ol Aii|;. 22, 1682, makes iheni 
meet the Si()ux above Si. Anthony's I'alls ! As Ilcniiepin says 
hxtcr that they had made 200 leagues since leaving the Illinois 
Indians, anil makes the Illinois camp one hundred from the 
Mioiiili, A like distance on (he Mississippi will hiing the c.ipiinc 
about the l^esmoines. 

I Tamaroas. 



2o6 A DESCRIPTION 

shore. We first presented them a piece of Petun 
or French tobacco, better for smoking than theirs, 
and the eldest among them uttered these words 
Miamiha, Miamiha. As we did not understand 
their language, we took a little stick, and by- 
signs which we made on the sand, showed them 
that their enemies, the Miamis whom they sought, 
had fled across the river Colbert to join the 
Islinois ; when then they saw themselves dis- 
covered and unable to surprise their enemies, 
three or four old men laying their hands on my 
head, wept in a lugubrious tone, and I with a 
wretched handkerchief I had left, wiped away 
their tears. These savages would not smoke our 
peace-calumet. They made us cross the river 
with great cries, which all shouted together with 
tears in their eyes ; they made us paddle before 
them, and we heard yells capable of striking the 
most resolute with terror. After landing our 
canoe and our goods, some part of which they 
had been already stolen, we made a fire to boil 
our kettle ; we gave them two large wild turkeys 
that we had killed. These savages having called 



OF LOUISIANA. 207 

their assembly to deliberate on what they were 
to do with us ; the two head chiefs of the party 
approaching, showed us, by signs, that the 
warriors wished to tomahawk us. This com- 
pelled me to go to the war chiefs with one of 
my men, leaving the other by our property, and 
throw into their midst six axes, fifteen knives, 
and six fathom of our black tobacco, then bowing 
down my head, I showed them, with an axe, 
that they might tomahawk us, if they thought 
proper. This present appeased several individuals 
among them, who gave us some beaver to eat, 
putting the three first mors.^ls in our mouth 
according to the custom of the country, and 
blowing on the meat which was too hot, before 
putting their bark dish before us, to let us eat as 
we liked ; we spent the night in anxiety, because 
before retiring at night, they had returned us our 
peace-calumet. Our two canoemen were, how- 
ever, resolved to sell their lives dearly, and to 
resist if attacked ; they kept their arms and 
swords ready. As for my own part, I deter- 
mined to allow myself tQ be; killed without 



208 A DESCRIPTION 

any resistance, as I was going to announce to 
them a God, who had been falsely accused, 
unjustly condemned, and cruelly crucified, with- 
out showing the least aversion to those who put 
him to death. In our uncertainty, we watched 
one after the other, so as not to be surprised 
asleep. 

In the morning, April 12th,* one of their cap- 
tains named Narrhetoba, with his face and bare 
body smeared with paint, asked me for our peace- 
calumet, filled it with tobacco of his country, 
made all his band smoke first, and then all the 
others who plotted our ruin. He then gave us 
to understand that we must go with them to 
their country, and they all turned back with us ; 
having thus broken off their voyage. I was not 
sorry in this conjuncture! to continue our dis- 
coveries with these people. But the greatest 
trouble I had was, that I found it difficult to say 
my office J before these savages, many of whom 

* Nouv. Decouv. p. 319 has 13th. 

t " Conjecture " in the text. 

I Daily portion of the Breviary which priests have to read. 



OF LOUISIANA. 209 

seeing me move my lips said, in a fierce tone, 
Ouackanche ; * and as we did not know a word 
of their language, we believed that they were 
angry at it. Michael Ako, all out of counte- 
nance, told me, that if I continued to say my 
breviary we should all three be killed, and the 
Picard begged me at least to conceal myself for 
my devotions, so as not to provoke them further. 
T followed the latter's advice, but the more I 
concealed mvself, the more I had the Indians at 
my heels, for when I entered the wood, they 
thought I was going to hide some goods under 
ground, so that I knew not on what side to turn 
to pray, for they never let me out of sight. This 
obliged me to beg pardon of my two canoemen, 
assuring them that I ought not dispense with 
saying my office, that if we were massacred for 
that, I should be the innocent cause of their 
death, as well as of my own. By the word 
Ouakanche, these savages meant that the book I 
was reading was a spirit ; but by their gesture 

* Wakan-de, This is wonderful. Minn. Hist. Coll., i p. 
308. 



2IO A DESCRIPTION 

they nevertheless showed a kind of aversion, so 
that to accustom them to it, I chanted the Litany 
of the Blessed Virgin in the canoe with my book 
open. They thought that the breviary was a 
spirit which taught me to sing for their diversion, 
for these people are naturally fond of singing. 

The outrages done us by these Indians during 
our whole route were incredible, for seeing that 
our canoe was much larger and more heavily 
laden than theirs (for they have only a quiver 
full of arrows, a bow, and a wretched dressed 
skin, to serve two as a blanket during the night, 
which was still pretty cold at that season, always 
going north), and that we could not go faster than 
they, they put some warriors with us to help us 
row, to oblige us to follow them. These Indians 
sometimes make thirty or forty leagues by water, 
when at war and pressed for time, or anxious to sur- 
prise some enemy. Those who had taken us were 
of different villages and of different opinions as to 
us ; we cabined every night by the young chief 
who had asked for our peace-calumet, and put 
ourselves under his protection ; but jealousy arose 



OF LOUISIANA. 211 

among these Indians, so that the chief of the 
party named Aquipaguetin, one of whose sons 
had been killed by the Miamis, seeing that he 
could not avenge his death on that nation which 
he sought, turned all his rage on us. He wept 
through almost every night him he had lost in 
war, to oblige those who had come out to avenge 
him, to kill us and seize all we had, so as to be 
able to pursue his enemies ; but those who liked 
European goods were much disposed to preserve 
us, so as to attract other Frenchmen there and 
get iron, which is extremely precious in their 
eyes ; but of which they knew the great utility 
only when they saw one of our French canoemen 
kill three or four wild geese or turkeys at a single 
gun shot, while they can scarcely kill even one 
with an arrow. In consequence, as we afterward 
learned, that the words Manza Ouackange,* 
mean "iron that has understanding," and so these 
nations called a gun which breaks a man's bones, 
while their arrows only glance through the flesh 

'"^ Hennepin uses the French nasals. In the notation now 
adopted it is Maza Wakande, that is "The supernatural metal." 
Minn. Hist. Socy., i p. 308. Rigg's Dakota Diet., p. 138. 



212 A DESCRIPTION 



they pierce, rarely breaking the bones of those 
whom they strike, and consequently producing 
wounds more easily cured than those made by 
our European guns, which often cripple those 
whom they wound. 

We had some design of proceeding down to 
the mouth of the river Colbert, which more 
probably empties into the gulf of Mexico than 
into the Red sea ; but these tribes that seized us, 
gave us no time to sail up and down this river. 

We had made about two hundred leagues f by 
water since our departure from the Islinois, and 
we sailed with these Indians who took us during 
nineteen days, sometimes north, sometimes north- 
west, according to the direction which the river 
took. By the estimate which we formed, since 
that time, we made about two hundred and fifty 
leagues, or even more on Colbert river ; for these 
Indians paddle with great force, from early in 
the morning till evening, scarcely stopping to eat 

f This clause of course is omitted in the Nouv. Decouverte. 
The Red Sea, in Spanish Mar Bermejo, was the Gulf of Cali- 
fornia. Compare this clause with the conclusion of the volum e . 



OF LOUISIANA. 213 

during the day. To oblige us to keep up with 
them, they gave us every day four or five men to 
increase the paddling of our little vessel, which 
was much heavier than theirs. Sometimes we 
cabined when it rained, and when the weather 
was not bad, we slept on the ground without any 
shelter. We had all the time to contemplate 
the stars and the moon when it shone. Not- 
withstanding the fatigue of the day, the youngest 
of these Indian warriors danced the calumet to 
four or five of their chiefs till midnight, and the 
chief to whom they went, sent a warrior of his 
family in ceremony to those who sang, to let them 
in turn smoke his war calumet, which is distin- 
guished from the peace- calumet by different 
feathers. The end of this kind of pandemonium 
was terminated every day by two of the youngest 
of those who had had relations killed in war ; 
they took several arrows which they presented by 
the points all crossed to the chiefs, weeping 
bitterly ; they gave them to them to kiss. Not- 
withstanding the force of their yelling, the fatigue 
of the day, the watching by night, the old men 



214- A DESCRIPTION 

almost all awoke at daybreak for fear of being 

surprised by their enemies. As soon as dawn 

appeared one of them gave the cry, and in an 

instant all the warriors entered their bark canoes, 

some passing around the islands in the river to 

kill some beasts, while the most alert went by 

land, to discover whether any enemy's fire was 

to be seen. It was their custom always to take 

post on the point of an island for safety sake, 

for their enemies have only periaguas, or wooden 

canoes, in which they cannot sail as fast as they 

do, on account of the weight of their craft. Only 

northern tribes have birch to make bark canoes ; 

the southern tribes who have not that kind of 

tree, are deprived of this great convenience. The 

result is that birch bark wonderfully faciUtates the 

northern Indians in going from lake to lake, and 

by all rivers to attack their enemies, and even 

when discovered, they are safe if they have time 

to get into their canoes, for those who pursue 

them by land, or in periaguas, cannot attack or 

pursue them quickly enough.* 

* The Nouv. Decouv. p. 328, here introduces a paragraph 
on Indian ambuscades. 



OF LOUISIANA. 2 I 5 

During one of these nineteen days of our very- 
painful navigation, the chief of a band by name 
Aquipaguetin, resolved to halt about noon in a 
large prairie ; having killed a very fat bear, he 
gave a feast to the chief men, and after the repast 
all the vs^arriors began to dance. Marked in the 
face, and all over the body, with various colors, 
each being distinguished by the figure of different 
animals, according to his particular taste or in- 
clination ; some having their hair short and full 
of bear oil, with white and red feathers ; others 
besprinkled their heads with the down of birds 
which adhered to the oil. All danced with their 
arms akimbo, and struck the ground with their 
feet so stoutly as to leave the imprint visible. 
While one of the sons of the master of ceremo- 
nies, gave each in turn the war-calumet to smoke, 
he wept bitterly. The father in a doleful voice, 
broken with sighs and sobs, with his whole body 
bathed in tears, sometimes addressed the warriors, 
sometimes came to me, and put his hands on my 
head, doing the same to our two Frenchmen, 
sometimes he raised his eyes to heaven and often 



2l6 



A DESCRIPTION 



Uttered the word Louis, which means sun, com- 
plaining to that great luminary of the death of 
his son. As far as we could conjecture this cer- 
emony tended only to our destruction ; in fact, 
the course of time showed us that this Indian had 
often aimed at our life ; but seeing the opposition 
made by the other chiefs who prevented it, he 
made us embark again, and employed other 
devices to get by degrees the goods of our canoe- 
men, not daring to take them openly, as he 
might have done, for fear of being accused by 
his own people of cowardice, which the bravest 
hold in horror. 

This wily savage had the bones of some im- 
portant deceased relative, which he preserved with 
great care in some skins dressed and adorned with 
several rows of black and red porcupine quills ; 
from time to time he assembled his men to give 
it a smoke, and he made us come several days in 
succession to cover the deceased's bones with 
goods, and by a present wipe away the tears he 
had shed for him, and for his own son killed by 
the Miamis. To appease this captious man, we 



OF LOUISIANA. 2 17 

threw on the bones of the deceased several 
fathoms of French tobacco, axes, knives, beads, 
and some black and v^hite wampum bracelets. 
In this way the Indian stripped us under pretexts, 
which we could not reproach him with, as he 
declared that what he asked was only for the de- 
ceased, and to give the warriors. In fact, he dis- 
tributed among them all that we gave him. By 
these feints he made us believe that being a chief, 
he took nothing for himself, but what we gave 
him of our own accord. We slept at the point 
of the lake of Tears, which we so called from 
the weeping and tears which this chief shed there 
all night long, or which were shed by one of his 
sons, whom he caused to weep when tired him- 
self, in order to excite his warriors to compassion, 
and oblige them to kill us and pursue their ene- 
mies to avenge his son's death. 

These Indians at times sent their best runners 

by land to chase the herds of wild cattle on the 

water side ; as these animals crossed the river, 

they sometimes killed forty or fifty, merely to 

18 



2l8 A DESCRIPTION 

take the tongue, and most delicate morsels, leav- 
ing the rest with which they would not burthen 
themselves, so as to travel more rapidly. We 
sometimes indeed eat good pieces, but without 
bread, wine, or salt, and without spice or other 
seasoning. During our three years' * travels we 
had lived in the same way, sometimes in plenty, 
at others compelled to pass twenty-four hours, 
and often more, without eating ; because in 
these little bark canoes you cannot take much of 
a load, and with every precaution you adopt, you 
are, for most part of the time, deprived of all 
necessaries of life. If a religious in Europe un- 
derwent as many hardships and labors, and prac- 
tised abstinences like those we were often obliged 
to suffer in America, no other proof would be 
needed for his canonization. It is true that we 
did not always merit in such cases and if we suffered 
it was only because we can not help it. 

During the night some old men came to weep 
piteously, often rubbing our arms and whole 

* The Nouvelle Decouv., p. 334, has "duriiip; the four vears 
of nearly twelve that I remained in America," 



OF LOUISIANA. 2lC) 

bodies with their hands, which they then put on 
our head. Besides being hindered from sleeping 
by these tears, I often did not know what to 
think, nor whether these Indians wept because 
some of their warriors would have killed us, or 
whether they wept out of pure compassion at the 
ill treatment shown us. 

On another occasion, Aquipaguetin relapsed 
into his bad humor : he had so gained most of 
the warriors that one day when we were unable 
to encamp near Narhetoba, who protected us, we 
were obliged to go to the very end of the camp, 
these Indians making it appear to us, that this 
chief insisted positively on killing us. We accord- 
ingly drew from a box twenty knives and some 
tobacco, which we angrily flung down amid 
the malcontents ; the wretch regarding all his 
soldiers one after another hesitated, asking their 
advice, whether to refuse or take our present ; and 
as we bowed our head and presented him with an 
axe to kill us, the young chief who was really or 
pretendedly our protector took us by the arm, 
and all in fury led us to his cabin. One of his 



2 20 A DESCRIPTION 

brothers taking some arrows, he broke them all 
in our presence, showing us by this action, that 
he prevented their killing us. 

The next day they left us alone in our canoe, 
without putting in any Indians to help us, as they 
usually did ; all remained behind us. After four 
or five leagues sail another chief came to us, made 
us disembark, and pulling up three little piles of 
grass, for us to sit upon, he took a piece of cedar 
full of little round holes in one of which he put 
a stick, which he spun round between the two 
palms of his hands, and in this way made fire to 
light the tobacco in his great calumet. After 
weeping some time, and putting his hands on my 
head, he gave me his peace-calumet to smoke, 
and showed us that we should be in his country 
in six days. 

Having arrived on the nineteenth day of our 
navigation five leagues below the Falls of St. 
Anthony, these Indians landed us in a bay and 
assembled to deliberate about us. They distri- 
buted us separately, and gave us to three heads of 
families in place of three of their children who 



OF LOUISIANA. 22 1 

had been killed in war. They first seized all our 
property, and broke our canoe to pieces, for fear 
we should return to their enemies. Their own 
they hid all in some alders to use when going to 
hunt; and though we might easily have reached 
their country by water, they compelled us to go 
sixty leagues by land, forcing us to march from 
daybreak to two hours after nightfall, and to swim 
over many rivers, while these Indians, who are 
often of extraordinary height, carried our habit 
on their head ; and our two canoemen, who were 
smaller than myself, on their shoulders, because 
they could not swim as I couM. On leaving the 
water, which was often full of sharp ice, I could 
scarcely stand ; our legs were all bloody from the 
ice which we broke as we advanced in lakes which 
we forded, and as we eat only once in twenty- 
four hours some pieces of meat which these 
barbarians grudgingly gave us, I was so weak 
that I often lay down on the way, resolved to die 
there, rather than follow these Indians who 
marched on and continued their route with a 
celerity which surpasses the power of Euro- 



2 22 A DESCRIPTION 

peans. To oblige us to hasten on, they often set 
fire to the grass of the prairies where we were 
passing, so that we had to advance or burn. I 
had then a hat which I reserved to shield me 
from the burning rays of the sun in summer, but 
I often dropped it in the flames which we were 
obliged to cross. 

As we approached their village, they divided 
among them all the merchandise of our two 
canoemen,* and were near killing each other for 
our roll of French tobacco, which is very pre- 
cious to these tribes, and more esteemed than 
gold among Europeans. The more humane 
showed by signs that they would give many 
beaver-skins for what they took. The reason of 
the violence was, that this party was made up 
from two different tribes, the more distant of 
whom, fearing lest the others should retain all 
the goods in the first villages which they would 
have to pass, wished to take their share in ad- 
vance. In fact, some time after they offered 
peltries in part payment; but ourcanoemen would 

* Margry, i p. 482. See Appendix B. 



OF LOUISIANA. ^23 

not receive them, until they gave the full value 
of all that had been taken. And in course of 
time I have no doubt they will give entire satis- 
faction to the French, whom they will endeavor 
to draw among them to carry on trade. 

These savages also took our brocade chasuble, 
and all the articles of our portable chapel, except 
the chalice, which they durst not touch ; for 
seeing that glittering silver gilt, they closed their 
eyes, saying that it was a spirit which would kill 

them.* They also broke a little box with lock 
and key, after telling me, that if I did not break 

the lock, they would do so themselves with 
sharp stones ; the reason of this violence was that 
from time to time on the route, they could not 
open the box to examine what was inside, having 
no idea of locks and keys ; besides, they did not 
care to carry the box, but only the goods which 
were inside, and which they thought more numer- 
ous but they found only books and papers. 

After five days'" march by land, suffering hunger, 
thirst, and outrages, marching all day long with- 

* Margiy i^ p. 482. Nouv, Pecouveite, p. 344. 



2 24 ^ DESCRIPTION 

out rest, fording lakes and rivers, we descried a 
number of women and children coming to meet 
our little army. All the elders of this nation 
assembled on our account, and as we saw cabins, 
and bundles of straw hanging from the posts of 
them, to which these sa"^ages bind those whom 
they take as slaves, and burn them ; and seeing 
that they made the Picard du Gay sing, as he 
held and shook a gourd full of little round 
pebbles and seeing his hair and face were filled 
with paint of different colors, and a tuft of white 
feathers attached to his head by the Indians, we 
not unreasonably thought that they wished to kill 
us, as they performed many ceremonies, usually 
practised, when they intend to burn their enemies. 
The worst of it was, too, that not one of us three 
could make himself understood by these Indians ; 
nevertheless, after many vows, which every Chris- 
tian ought to make in such straits,* one of the 
principal Issati chiefs gave us his peace-calumet 
to smoke, and accepted the one we had brought. 
He then gave us some wild rice to eat, presenting 
* " Conjectures " in text, for " conjonctures." 



OF LOUISIANA. 225 

it to US in large bark dishes, which the Indian 
women had seasoned with whortleberries, which 
are black berries that they dry in the sun in 
summer, and are as good as currants.* After 
this feast, the best we had had for seven or eight 
days, the heads of families who had adopted us 
instead of their sons killed in war, conducted us 
separately each to his village, marching through 
marshes, knee deep in water, for a league, after 
which the five wives of the one who called me 
Mitch inchij'j" that is to say, his son, received us 
in three bark canoes, and took us a short league 
from our starting place to an island where their 
cabins were. 

On our arrival, which was about the Easter 

* " Our Flemings call them in their language Clakebesien." 
Nouv. Decouv., p. 347. It then says there was a great con- 
test between Aquipaguetin and the rest in regard to them 
Aquapaguetin succeeded, gave him the calumet to smoke, 
adopted him as his son, while Narhetoba and another took away 
the canoemen. The Picard du Gay went to confession but 
it adds " I should have been charmed to see Michael Ako in 
similar dispositions," p. 348. Compare Gravier, Illinois Re- 
lation, p. 20. Jesuit and Recollect agreeing as to Ako. 

f Not in the Nouv. Dec. 



2 2b A DESCRIPTION 

holidays in the year 1680,* one of these Indians 
who seemed to me decrepid with age, gave me 
a large calumet to smoke, and weeping bitterly, 
rubbed my head and arms, showing his com- 
passion at seeing me so fatigued, that two men 
were often obliged to give me their hands to help 
me to stand up. There was a bearskin near the 
fire, on which he rubbed my thighs, legs and the 
soles of my feet with wild-cat oil. 

Aquipaguetin's son, who called me his brother, 
paraded about with our brocade chasuble on his 
bare back, having rolled up in it a dead man's 
bones, for whom these people had a great venera- 
tion. The priest's girdle made of red and white 
wool, with two tassels at the end, served him for 
braces, carrying in triumph what he called 
Pere Louis Chinnien,f which means, as I after- 

*This is somewhat vague; Easter Sunday, in 1680, fell on 
the 2ist of April ; he v/as taken on the nth of April, traveled 
nineteen days in canoe, and five by land, which brings him to 
the 5th of May. The Nouv. Dec, says, that he arrived at the 
beginning of May, and enters into long explanations. 

fShinna or Shina, a blanket. Rigg's Dakota Diet., p. 189. 
Shinna or Shinnan means a buffalo robe. Minn. Hist., Coll. 
I, p. 310. 



OF LOUISIANA. 227 

wards ascertained " the robe of him who is called 
the sun." After these Indians had used this cha- 
suble as an ornament to cover the bones of their 
dead in their greatest ceremonies, they presented 
it to some of their allies, tribes situated about five 
hundred * leagues west of their country, who 
had sent them an embassy and danced the calumet. 

The day after our arrival, Aquipaguetin, who 
was the head of a large family, covered me with 
a robe made of ten large dressed beaver-skins, •{" 
trimmed with porcupine quills. This Indian 
showed me five or six of his wives, telling them, 
as I afterward learned, that they should in future 
regard me as one of their children J He set 
before me a bark dish full offish, and ordered all 
those assembled, that each should call me by the 
name I was to have in the rank of our new rela- 
tionship; and seeing that I could not rise from 
the ground but by the help of two persons, he 

*Four or five hundred. Nouv. Dec, p. 352. 

f Dressed buffalo belly skins, Nouv. Dec, p. 352, and adds 
that he gave him one of ten beaver skins. The wives become 
six or seven. 

J Nouv. Voy. (Voy, au Nord., v. p. 284.) 



2 28 A DESCRIPTION 

had a sweating cabin made, in which he made 
me enter quite naked with four Indians who all 
tied the end of their yard with white wood bark 
before beginning to sweat. This cabin he cov- 
ered with buffalo-skins, and inside in the middle 
he put stones heated to a red heat. He made me 
a sign to do like the others before beginning to 
sweat, but I merely concealed my nakedness with 
a handkerchief. As soon as these Indians had sev- 
eral times drawn their breath very violently, he 
began to sing in a thundering voice, theothers sec- 
onded him, all putting their hands on my body, and 
rubbing me, while they wept bitterly. I began to 
faint, but I came out of the cabin, andcould scarcely 
take my habit to put on. When he had made 
me sweat thus three times in a week, I felt as 
strong as ever. 

I often spent wretched hours among these 
cavages ; for, besides their only giving me a little 
wild rice and smoked fish roes to eat five or six times 
week, which they boiled in water in earthen 
pots, Aquipaguetin took me to a neighboring 
island with his wives and children to till the 



OF LOUISIANA. 229 

ground, in order to sow some tobacco seed, and 
seeds of vegetables that I had brought, and which 
this Indian prized extremely. Sometimes he 
assembled the elders of the village, in whose 
presence he asked me for a compass that I always 
had in my sleeve ; seeing that I made the needle 
turn with a key, and believing justly that we 
Europeans went all over the habitable globe, 
guided by this instrument, this chief, who was 
very eloquent, persuaded his people that we were 
spirits, and capable of doing anything beyond their 
reach. At the close of his address, which was 
very animated, all the old men wept over my 
head, admiring in me what they could not under- 
stand. I had an iron pot with three lion feet, 
which these Indians never dared touch, unless 
their hand was wrapped up in some robe. The 
women had it hung to the branch of a tree, not 
daring to enter the cabin where this pot was. 
I was some time unable to make myself under- 
stood by these people, but feeling myself gnawed 
by hunger, I began to compile a dictionary of 
their language by means of their children, with 



230 A DESCRIPTION 

whom I made myself familiar, in order to learn. 
As soon as I could catch the word Taketchi- 
abihen,* which means in their language, " How 
do you call that," I became, in a little while, 
able to converse with them on familiar things. 
At first, indeed, to ask the word run in their 
language, I had to quicken my steps from one 
end of their large cabin to the other. The chiefs 
of these savages seeing my desire to learn, often "j* 
made me write, naming all the parts of the human 
body, and as I would not put on paper certain 
indelicate words, about which these people have 
no scruples, it afforded them an agreeable amuse- 
ment among themselves. They often put me 
questions, but as I had to look at my paper, to 
answer them, they said to one another : " When 
we ask Pere Louis (for so they had heard our 
two Frenchmen call me), he does not answer 

* Takn kapi he, Minn. Hist. Coll., i p. 311. Takn kipan 
he. Riggs' Dakota Diet., p, 130, 194, 

f " Often said to me t^atchhon egagah'e^ that is to say : Spirit 
you take great pains, put black on the white." Nouv. Decouv,, 
p. 359, (Perhaps, wotehike, trouble ; icagopi, mark. Riggs' 
Diet., p. 334, 310.) 



OF LOUISIANA. 2 3I 

US ; but as soon as he has looked at what is white 
(for they have no word to say paper), he answers 
us, and tells us bis thoughts ; that white thing," 
said they, " must be a spirit which tells Pere 
Louis all we say." They concluded that our two 
Frenchmen had not so much intelligence as I, 
because they could not work like me on what 
was white. In consequence the Indians believed 
that I could do everything ; when the rain fell 
in such quantities as to incommode them, or pre- 
vent their going to hunt, they told me to stop it ; 
but then I knew enough to answer them by 
pointing to the clouds, that he who was great 
chief of heaven, was master of everything, and 
that what they bid me do, did not depend on me. 
These Indians often asked me how many wives 
and children I had, and how old I was, that is, 
how many winters, for so these nations always 
count. These men, never illumined by the light 
of faith, were surprised at the answer I made 
them ; for pointing to our two Frenchmen whom 
I had then gone to visit three leagues from our 
village, I told them that a man among us could 



232 A DESCRIPTION 

have only one wife till death ; that as for me, I 
had promised the Master of life to live as they 
saw me, and to come and dwell with them to teach 
them * that he would have them be like the 
French ; that this great Master of life had sent 
down fire from heaven, and destroyed a nation 
given to enormous crimes, like those committed 
among them. But that gross people till then, 
lawless and faithless, turned all I said into ridicule, 
" How," said they, " would you have those two 
men with you get wives ? Our women would 
not live with them, for they have hair all over 
the face, and we have none there or elsewhere/'-j" 
In fact, they were never better pleased with me, 
than when I was shaved ; and from a complais- 
ance certainly not criminal, I shaved every week. 
All our new kinsfolk seeing that I wished to 
leave them, made a packet of beaver skins worth 
more than six hundred livres among the French. 

* From this to " abundant country " is omitted in the Nouv. 
Decouverte. 

f Brother Sagard, a Recollect like Hennepin, but whose 
works Hennepin seems not to have used, gives a similar remark 
as made by the Hurons. Histoire. du Canada, p. 377. 



OF LOUISIANA. 233 

These peltries they gave me to induce me to re- 
main among them, to introduce me to strange 
nations that were coming to visit them, and in 
restitution for what they had robbed me of; but 
I refused these presents, telling them that I had 
not come among them to gather beaver-skins, 
but only to make known to them the will of the 
great Master of life, and to live wretchedly with 
them, after having left a most abundant country. 
" It is true," said they, " that we have no game 
in these parts, and that you suffer, but wait till 
summer, then we will go and kill buffalo in the 
warm country." I should have been satisfied had 
they fed me as they did their children, but they 
eat secretly at night unknown to me. Although 
women are, everywhere more kind and com- 
passionate than men, they gave what little 
fish they had to their children, regarding me as 
a slave made by their warriors in their enemies' 
country, and they reasonably preferred their 
children's lives to mine. 

There were some old men who often came to 
19 



2 34 A t)ESCRiPTION 

weep over my head in a sighing voice, one saying, 
"my grandson," another, "my nephew, I feel sorry 
to see you without eating, and to learn how badly 
our warriors treated you on the way ; they are 
young braves, without sense, who would have killed 
you, and have robbed you of all you have. Had 
you wanted buffalo or beaver-robes, we would 
wipe away your tears, but you will have nothing 
of what we offer you." 

Ouasicoude, that is, the Pierced-pine,* the 
greatest of all the slati chiefs, being very indig- 
nant at those who had so maltreated us, said, in 
open council, that those who had robbed us of 
all we had, were like hungry curs that stealthily 
snatch a bit of meat from the bark dish, and then 
fly ; so those who had acted thus toward us, de- 
served to be regarded as dogs, since they insulted 
men who brought them iron and merchandise, 
which they had never had for their use; that he 
would find means to punish the one who had so 

* Wazikute, The Shooter of the Pines. Minn, Hist. Coll., 
i p. 316. Long in 1823, met a Dakota at Red Wing who bore 
this same name. Long's Travels. Wazi, pine ; kute, to shoot. 
Riggs' Dakota Diet. pp. 239, 134. 



OF LOUISIANA. 235 

outraged us. This is what the brave chief showed 
to all his nation, as we shall see hereafter. 

As I often went to visit the cabins of these last 
nations, I found a sick child, whose father's name 
was Mamenisi ; having a moral certainty of its 
death, I begged our two Frenchmen to tell me 
their opinions, informing them I believed myself 
obliged to go and baptize it. Michael Ako would 
not accompany me, the Picard du Gay alone 
followed me to act as sponsor, or rather as witness of 
the baptism.* I christened the child Antoinette in 
honor of St. Anthony of Padua, as well as from 
the Picard's name which was Anthony Auguelle. 
He was a native of Amiens, and a nephew of Mr. 
de Cauroy, procurator -general of the Premon- 
stratensians,* both now at Paris. Having poured 
natural water on the head of this Indian child, 
and uttered these words : " Creature of God, I 
baptize thee in the name of the Father, and of 
the Son, and of the Holy Ghost," I took half an 
altar cloth which I had wrested from the hands 

* And afterwards Abbot of Beaulieu. Nouv. Decouv., p. 
365. Margry i p. 478, mentions the Picard's being at Pisar. 



236 A DESCRIPTION 

of an Indian who had stolen it from me, and put 
it on the body of the baptized child ; for as I 
could not say mass for want of wine and vest- 
ments, this piece of linen could not be put to a 
better use, than to enshroud the first Christian 
child among these tribes. I do not know 
whether the softness of the linen had refreshed 
this newly baptized one because she was smiling 
the next day in her mother's arms, who believed 
that I had cured her child, but she died soon 
after to my great consolation/'' 

During our stay among the Issati or Nadou- 
es iou, we saw Indians who came as ambassadors 
from about five hundred leagues to the west. 
They informed us that the Assenipovalacs f were 
then only seven or eight days distant to the north- 
east of us ; all the other known tribes on the 
west and north-west inhabit immense plains and 
prairies abounding in buffalo and peltries, where 

* He expatiates on this subject in the Nouv. Decouv,, p. 
367, as he does on Michael Ako's religious indifference. 

■j- Assiniboins. 



OF LOUISIANA. 237 

they are sometimes obliged to make fires with 
buffalo dung, for want of wood.* 

Three months f after, all these nations assembled, 
and the chiefs having regulated the places for 
hunting the buffalo, they dispersed in several 
bands so as not to starve each other. Aquipa- 
quetin, one of the chiefs, who had adopted me as 
his son, wished to take me to the west with about 
two hundred families ; I made answer that I 
awaited spirits (so they called Frenchmen), at the 
river Oiiiscousin, which empties into the river 
Colbert, who were to join me to bring them 
merchandise, and that if he chose to go that way, 
I would continue with him ; he would have gone 
there but for those of his nation. In the be- 
ginning of July, 1680, we descended in canoe 

J This paragraph is in Margry i, p. 483. See Appendix B. 
The Nouv. Decouv,, says thev were four moons on the way 
without stopping and knew no strait like that of Anian, or sea, 
p. 369. He enters into details of what they saw and offers to 
accompany an English or Dutch expedition and reach the 
Pacific by the rivers he discovered. 

I Two months, Nouv. Decouv., p. 374. 



238 A DESCRIPTION 

southward with the great chief named Ouasi- 
coude,* that is to say, the Pierced-pine, with about 
eighty cabins, composed of more than a hundred 
and thirty families, and about two hundred and 
fifty warriors. Scarcely would the Indians give 
me a place in their little craft, for they had only 
old canoes. They went four days' journey lower 
down to get birch bark t^) make some more. 
Having made a hole in the ground to hide our silver 
chalice and our papers till we returned from the 
hunt, and keeping only our breviary, so as not to 
be burthensome, I stood on the bank of a lake 
formed by the river we had called by the name of 
St. Francis, and stretched out my hand to the canoes 
as they rapidly passed in succession; our French- 
men also had one for themselves, which the 
Indians had given them ; they would not take me 
in, Michael Ako saying that he had taken me long 
enough to satisfy him. I was much hurt at this 

* In the Nouv. Voy. (Voy. au Nord,, v. p. 286, this chie 
is said to have adopted Hennepin as a brother. His power was 
absolute, and was acquired by valor in vvar against seventeen or 
eighteen hostile tribes. 



OF LOUISIANA. 239 

answer, seeing myself thus abandoned by * Chris- 
tians, to whom I had always done good, as they 
both often acknowledged ; but God having never 
abandoned me in that painful voyage, prompted two 
Indians to take me in their very small canoe, where 
I had no other employment than to bale out with a 
little bark platter the water which entered by little 
holes. This I did not do without getting all wet. 
This boat might, indeed, be called a coffin, from 
its lightness and fragility. This kind of canoe 
does not generally weigh over fifty pounds ; the 
least motion of the body upsets them, unless you 
are long habituated to that kind of navigation. 
On disembarking in the evening, the Picard, as 
an excuse, told me that their canoe was half 
rotten, and that, had we been three in it, we 
should have run a great risk of remaining on the 
way. Notwithstanding this excuse I told him, 
that being Christians, they should never act so, 
especially among savages, more than eight hundred 

* The Nouv. Dec, has canoemen or some similar term to 
avoid the vvord French, but here says "meii of ray ovya naiion 
and religion," p. 376. 



24-0 A DESCRIPTION 

leagues from the French settlements ; that if they 
were well received in this country, it was only 
in consequence of my bleeding some asthmatic 
Indians, and my giving some orvietan * and other 
remedies which I kept in my sleeve, and by 
which I had saved the lives of some of these 
Indians who had been bit by rattlesnakes, and 
because I had neatly shaved their tonsure, which 
Indian children wear to the age of eighteen or 
twenty, but l^.ave no way of making it themselves 
except by burning the hair with flat stones heated 
red hot. I reminded them that by my ingenuity 
I had gained the friendship of these people, who 
would have killed us or made us suffer more, had 
they not discovered about me those remedies 
which they prize, when they restore the sick to 
health. However, the Picard only, as he retired 
to his host's, apologised to n}e.f 

* An antidote for poison said by some to have been invented 
by Orvietano an Italian. 

f According to the Nouv. Decouv., Ouasicoude was indig- 
nant and vi^as going to punish and even kill Hennepin's com- 
panions for their treatment of him. 



OF LOUISIANA. 24 I 

Four days after our departure for the buffalo 
hunt, we halted eight leagues above the Falls of 
St. Anthony of Padua on an eminence opposite 
the mouth of the river St. Francis ; here the 
Indian women made their canoe frames, while 
waiting for those who were to bring bark to make 
canoes. The young men went to hunt stag, deer, 
and beaver, but killed so few animals for such a 
large party, that we could very rarely get a bit of 
meat, having to put up with a broth once in every 
twenty-four hours. The Picard and myself went 
to look for haws, gooseberries, and little wild 
fruit, which often did us more harm than good 
when we ate them ; this obliged us two to go 
alone, as Michael Ako refused, in a wretched 
canoe to Oviscousin* river, which was more than 
a hundred f leagues off, to see whether the sieur 
de la Salle had not sent to that place a reinforce- 
ment of French men, with powder, lead, and other 

•"••■ Wisconsin. 
f Onr hundred and thirty. Nouv. Dec , p. 382. 



242 A DESCRIPTION 

munitions, as he had promised us on our departure 
from the Islinois.* 

The Indians would not have suffered this voy- 
age, had not one of the three remained with them ; 
they wished me to stay, but Michael Ako abso- 
lutely refused. Our whole stock was fifteen 
charges of powder, a gun, a wretched little earthen 
pot which the Indians had given us, a knife, and 
a beaver robe, to travel about two hundred f 
leagues, thus abandoning ourselves to Providence. 
As we were making the portage of our canoe at 
the Falls of St. Anthony of Padua, we perceived 
five or six of our Indians who had taken the start ; 
one of whom had cli Tibed an oak opposite the 
great fall where he was weeping bitterly, with a 
well-dressed beaver robe, whitened inside and 
trimmed with porcupine quills which this savage 
was offering as a sacrifice to the falls, which is in 
itself admirable and frightful. I heard him while 
shedding copious tears say, addressing this great 
cataract : " Thou who art a spirit, grant that 

* He mentions this arrangement with La Salle. Nouv. Dec, 
pp. 375 and 382. It is also in Margry's Rel., ii, p. 257. 
I Two hundred and fifty. Nouv. Dec, p. 383. 



OF LOUISIANA. 243 

the men of our nation may pass here quietly 
without accident, that we may kill buffalo in 
abundance, conquer our enemies, and bring slaves 
here, some of whom we will put to death * before 
thee; the Messenecqzf (so they call the tribe 
named by the French Outouagamis), have killed 
our kindred, grant that we may avenge them." 
In fact, after the heat of the buffalo-hunt, they 
invaded their enemies' country, killed some, and 
brought others as slaves. If they succeed a 
single time, even after repeated failures, they ad- 
here to their superstition. This robe offered in 
sacrifice served one of our Frenchmen, who took 
it as we returned.^ 

A league below the Falls of St. Anthony of 
Padua, the Picard was obliged to land and get his 

* " After making them suffer greatly." Nouv. Decouv., p. 
384- 

t Riggs in his Dakota Diet., p. 34, gives " Besdeke, the Fox 
Indians." If Hennepin's qz. was the old fashioned contraction 
for que, the word is almost identical except in the first letter. 

J Parkman, Discovery, p. 246, makes this an offering to 
Oanktayhee, the principal deity of the Sioux, who was supposed 
to live under these falls. See Carver, 



244- ^ DESCRIPTION 

powder-horn which he had left at the falls. On 
his return, I showed him a snake about six feet* 
long crawling up a straight and preciptous moun- 
tain and which gradually gained on some swallow's 
nests to eat the young ones ; at the foot of the 
mountain, we saw the feathers of those he had 
apparently eaten, and we pelted him down with 
stones. 

As we descended the river Colbert, we found 
some of our Indians cabined in the islands, loaded 
with buffalo-meat, some of which they gave us, 
and two hours after our landing, fifteen or sixteen 
warriors of the party whom we had left above the 
Falls of St. Anthony of Padua, entered tomahawk 
in hand, overthrew the cabin of those who had 
invited us, took all the meat and bear's oil that 
they found, and greased themselves with it from 
head to foot ; we at first took them to be enemies, 
but one of those who called himself my uncle, 
told me, that having gone to the bufi^alo-hunt 
before the rest, contrary to the maxims of the 
country, any one had a right to plunder them, 

* In the Nouv. Dec, p. 385, seven or eight feet. 



OF LOUISIANA. 245 

because they put the buffaloes to flight before the 
arrival of the mass of the nation. 

During sixty leagues that we sailed down the 
river, we killed only one deer, swimming across, 
but the heat was so great that the meat spoiled 
in twenty-four hours. This made us look for 
turtles, which we found hard to take, as their 
hearing is so acute, that as soon as they hear the 
least noise, they jump quickly into the water. 
We, however, took one much larger than the 
rest, with a thinner shell and fatter meat. While 
I was trying to cut off his head, he all but cut off 
one of my fingers. We had drawn one end of 
our canoe ashore, when a violent gust of wind 
drove it into the middle of the great river ; the 
Picard had gone with a gun into the prairie to 
try and kill a buffalo ; so I quickly pulled off our 
habit, and threw it on the turtle with some stones 
to prevent its escaping, and swam after our canoe 
which went very fast down the stream,as the current 
was very strong at that point. Having reached 
it with much difficulty, I durst not get in for fear 
of upsetting it, so I either pushed it before me, 



240 A DESCRIPTION 

or drew it after me, and thus little by little reached 
the shore about one eighth of a league from the 
place where I had the turtle. The Picard finding 
only our habit, and not seeing the canoe, naturally 
believed that some Indian had killed me. He 
retired to the prairie to look all around whether 
there were no people there. Meanwhile I re- 
mounted the river with all diligence in the canoe, 
and had just put on my habit, when I saw more 
than sixty buffalo crossing the river to reach the 
south lands ; I pursued the animals, calling the 
Picard with all my might ; he ran up at the 
noise and had time to reenter the canoe, while the 
dog which had jumped into the water had driven 
them into an island. Having given them chase 
there, they were crossing back when he shot one, 
which was so heavy that we could get it ashore 
only in pieces, being obliged to cut the best 
morsels, while the rest of the body was in the 
water. And as it was almost twice twenty-four 
hours since we had eaten, we made a fire with 
the drift-wood we often found on the sand ; and 
while the Picard was skinning the animal, I 



OF LOUISIANA. 247 

cooked the pieces of this fat meat in our little 
earthen pot ; we eat it so eagerly that we both 
fell sick, and had to stay two days in an island 
to recover. We could not take much of the 
meat with us, our canoe was so small, and besides 
the excessive heat spoiled it, so that we were all 
at once deprived of it, as it was full of worms ; 
and when we embarked in the morning, we did 
not know what we should eat during the day. 
Never have we more admired God's providence 
than during this voyage, for we did not always 
find deer, and could not kill them when we 
would ; but the eagles, which are very common 
in these vast countries, sometimes dropped from 
their claws bream, or large carp, which they were 
carrying to their nests. Another time we found 
an otter on the bank of the river Colbert eating 
a large fish, which had, running from the head, 
a kind of paddle or beak,* five fingers broad and 
a foot and a half long, which made our Picard 
say, that he thought he saw a devil in the paws 
of that otter : but his fright did not prevent our 
* The spade fish. 



248 A DESCRIPTION 

eating this monstrous fish which we found very 
good. 

While seeking the Oviscousin river, Aquipag- 
uetin, that savage father, whom I had left, and 
whom we believed more than two hundred 
leagues away, suddenly appeared with ten warriors, 
on the nth * of July, 1680. We believed that 
he was coming to kill us, because we had left 
him, with the knowledge , indeed of the other 
Indians, but against his will. He first gave us 
some wild-rice, and a slice of buffalo-meat to eat, 
and asked whether we had found the Frenchmen 
who were to bring us goods ; but not being sat- 
isfied with what we told him, he started before us, 
and went himself to Oviscousin to try and carry 
off what he could from the French ; this savage 
found no one there, and came and rejoined us 
three days after. The Picard had gone in the 
prairies to hunt, and I was alone in a ittle cabin 
on the bank of the river, which I had made to 
screen us from the sun, with a blanket that an 
Indian had given me back. Aquipaguetin seeing 

* About the middle. Nouv. Dec, p. 395. 



OF LOUISIANA. 249 

me alone canie up, tomahawk in hand : I laid 
hold of two pocket-pistols, which the Picard had 
got back from the Indians, and a knife, not in- 
tending to kill this would be Indian father of 
mine but only to frighten him, and prevent his 
crushing me, in case he had that intention. 
Aquipaguetin reprimanded me for exposing my- 
self thus to the insults of their enemies, saying 
that I should at least take the other bank of the 
river for greater safety. He wished to take me 
with him, telling me that he was with three hun- 
dred hunters, who killed more buffalo than those 
to whom I had abandoned myself. I would have 
done well to follow his advice, for the Picard 
and myself* ascending the river almost eighty 
leagues on the way, ran great risk of perishing a 
thousand times. 

We had only ten charges of powder left which 
we were obliged to divide into twenty to kill 
wild pigeons, or turtle-doves ; but when these 

* According to the Nouv. Decouv. p. 396, they kept on to 
the Wisconsin, but not finding La Salle's men, sailed up again, 
as is implied here. 
20 



250 A DESCRIPTION 

at last gave out we had recourse to three hooks, 
which we baited with bits of putrid catfish 
dropped by an eagle. For two whole days we 
took nothing, and were thus destitute of all sup- 
port when, during night prayer, as we were re- 
peating these words addressed to St. Anthony of 
Padua, 

" Pereunt pericula, cessat et necessitas," 

the Picard heard a noise, left his prayers, and ran 
to our hooks which he drew from the waters 
with two catfish so large that I had to go and 
help him.* Without cleaning the slime from 
these monstrous fish we cut them in pieces, and 
roasted them on the coals, our only little earthen 
pot having been broken. Two hours after night- 
fall, Mamenisi, the father of the little Indian 
girl, that I had baptized before she died, joined 
us and gave us buffalo meat at discretion. 

The next day the Indians whom we had left 
with Michael Ako, came down fromf Buffalo 

* In the Nouv. Decouv p. 398, they first took a small turtle, 
and took the catfish after reaching Buffalo liver. 

t Instead of "from" the Nouv. Dec, has " this." 



OF LOUISIANA. 25 1 

river with their flotilla of canoes loaded with 
meat. Aquipaguetin had, as he passed, told how 
exposed the Picard and I had been while on our 
voyage, and the Indian chiefs represented to us the 
cowardice of Michael Ako, who had refused to 
undertake it, for fear of dying by hunger. And 
had I not stopped him, the Picard would have 
insulted him. 

All the Indian women hid their stock of meat 
at the mouth of Buffalo river, and in the islands, 
and we again went down the river Colbert about 
eighty leagues way to hunt with this multitude of 
canoes ; from time to time the Indians hid their 
canoes on the banks of the river and in the is- 
lands ; then struck into the prairies seven or 
eight leagues beyond the mountains, where they 
killed, at different times, as many as a hundred and 
twenty buffaloes. They always left some of 
their old men on the tops of the mountains to be 
on the lookout for their enemies. One day when 
I was dressing the foot of one who called him- 
self my brother, and who had run a splinter deep 
into his foot, an alarm was given in the camp. 



2^2 A DESCRIPTION 

two hundred bowmen ran out ; and that brave 
Indian, ahhough I had just made a deep incision 
in the sole of his foot to draw out the wood, which 
had been driven in, left me and ran even faster 
than the rest, not to be deprived of the glory of 
fighting, but instead of enemies, they found only 
about eighty stags,which took flight. The wounded 
man could scarcely regain the camp. During 
this alarm, all the Indian women sang in a lugu- 
brious tone. The Picard left me to join his host, 
and I remaining with one called Otchimbi, was 
subjected to carrying in my canoe an Indian woman 
more than eighty years old. For all her great age, 
this old woman threatened to strike with her 
paddle three children who troubled us in the 
middle of our canoe. The men treated me well 
enough, but as the meat was almost entirely at 
the disposal of the women, I was compelled, in 
order to get some, to make their children's ton- 
sures about as large as those worn by our religious, 
for these little savages wear them to the age of 
fifteen or sixteen, and their parents make them 
with red hot stones. 



OF LOUISIANA. 253 

We had another alarm in our camp : the old 
men on duty on the top of the mountains an- 
nounced that they saw two * warriors in the 
distance; all the bowmen hastened there with 
speed, each trying to outstrip the others ; but 
they brought back only two women of their own 
nation, who came to report that a party of their 
people who were hunting near the extremity of 
Lake Conde, had found five spirits (so they call 
the French) ; who, by means of one of their 
slaves, had expressed a wish to come on, 
knowing us to be among them, in order to find 
out whether we were English, Dutch, Spaniards, 
or Frenchmen, being unable to understand how 
we could have reached those tribes by so wide a 
circuit. 

On the 25th f of July, 1680, as we were 
ascending the river Colbert after the bufi^alo-hunt, 
to the Indian villages we met the Sieur de Luth, 

* Omitted in Nouv. Dec. 

f Nouv. Dec, p. 407, says 28th., Du L'hut confirms 
Hennepin's account ; and the Jesuit Father RafFeix in 1688, 
refers to it as a fact. See Appendix, C, Du L'hut, gives no 
date. He makes his party four. 



2 54 A DESCRIPTION 

who came to the Nadoussious, with five French 
soldiers ; they joined us about two hundred and 
twenty leagues distant from the country of the 
Indians who had taken us;* as we had some 
knowledge of their language, they begged us to 
accompany them to the villages of those tribes, 
which I did readily, knowing that these French- 
men had not approached the sacraments for two 
years. The Sieur de Luth, who acted as captain, 
seeing me tired of tonsuring the children, and 
bleeding asthmatic old men to get a mouthful of 
meat, told the Indians that I was his elder 
brother, so that, having my subsistence secured, 
I labored only for the salvation of these Indians. 
We arrived at the villages of the Issati on the 
14th of August, 1680. I found our chalice and 
our papers still there which I had hidden in the 
ground ; the tobacco which I had planted, had 

* This would make him meet de L'hut's party some where 
below the Illinois, according to his description of the river. In 
the Nouvelle Decouverte, p. 408, be says, one hundred and 
twenty which would bring it just below the Wisconsin. In an 
account in the appendix it becume one hundred and fifty leagues. 
De L'hut himself says eighty leagues below the St. Croix, that 
is about the mouth of Black River. 



OF LOUISIANA. 255 

been choked by the weeds ; the turnips, cabbages, 
and other vegetables were of extraordinary size. 
The Indians durst not eat them. During our 
stay, they invited us to a feast where there were 
more than a hundred and twenty men all naked. 
The first chief,* a relative of the one whose body 
I had covered with a blanket, brought me a bark 
dish of food which he put on a buffalo-robe, 
dressed, whitened, and trimmed with porcupine 
quills on one side, and the curly wool on the 
other. He afterward put it on my head, saying : 
" He whose body thou didst cover, covers thine ; 
he has borne tidings of thee to the land of souls. 
Noble was thy act in his regard ; all the nation 
praises thee for it." He then reproached the 
Sieur du Luth, for not having covered the de- 
ceased's body, as I did. He replied that he 
covered only those of captains like himself; but 
the Indian answered, " Pere Louis is a greater 
captain than you for his robe (meaning our bro- 
cade chasuble), which we have sent to our allies, 

* Ouasiconde Nouv. Decouv., p, 4H. 



256 A DESCRIPTION 

who dwell three moons from this country, is 
more beautiful than that which you wear."* 

Toward the end of September, having no im- 
plements to begin an establishment, we resolved 
to tell these people, that for their benefit, we 
would have to return to the French settlements.f 
The great chief of the Issati, or Nadouessiouz 
consented, and traced in pencil on a paper I gave 
him, the route we were to take for four hundred 
leagues of the way. With this chart, we set out, 
eight Frenchmen, in two canoes, and descended 
the rivers St. Francis and Colbert. Two of our 
men took two beaver-robes at the Falls of St. 
Anthony of Padua, which these Indians had hung 
in sacrifice on the trees J 

We stopped near Ouscousin river to smoke 
some meat ; three Indians coming from the 
nations we had left, told us that their great chief 

* The Nouv. Dec, explains that this means three months, 
and reckons 15 leagues a day's march. 

f The Noui'. Dec, details the deliberations, pp., 413-6. 

t The Nouv. Dec, pp. 417-20, gives details as to a quarrel 
about these robes between Du L'hut and the men. Accault 
remained in the Sioux country. La Salle, lettre Aug. 22, 1682. 



OF LOUISIANA. 2^7 

named the Pierced-pine, having heard that one of 
the chiefs of his nation wished to pursue and kill 
us, had entered his cabin and tomahawked him, 
to prevent his pernicious design. We regaled 
these three Indians with meat, of which we 
were in no want then. 

Two days after, we perceived an army of one 
hundred and forty canoes, filled with about two 
hundred and fifty warriors ; we thought that 
those who brought the preceding news were 
spies, for instead of descending the river on 
leaving us, they ascended to tell their people. 
The chiefs of this little army visited us and 
treated us very kindly, the same day they de- 
scended the river and we kept down to 
Ouscousin.* We found that river as wide as the 
Seignelay with a strong current. After sailing 
up sixty J leagues, we came to a portage of half 

a league, which the Nadonessiouz chief had 
marked for us ; we slept there to leave marks 

* In the Nouv. Dec, Father Hennepin saves the party by 
his calumet. 

f Seventy. Nouv. Dec, p. 427. 



258 A DESCRIPTION 

and crosses on the trunks of the trees.* The 
next day we entered a river which winds won- 
derfully, for after six hour's sailing, we found 
ourselves opposite the place where we had em- 
barked. One of our men wishing to kill a swan 
on the wing, capsized his canoe, fortunately he 
touched bottom. 

We passed four lakes, two of them pretty large 
on the banks of which the Miamis formerly lived* 
we found Maskoutens, Kikapous, andOutaougamy 
there, who plant Indian corn for their subsistence. 
All this country is as fine as that of the Islinois. 

We made a portage at a rapid called the 
Cakalin, and after about four hundred leagues 
sail from our leaving the country of the Issati, 
and Nadouessious, we arrived safely at the ex- 
tremity of the bay of the Puans, where we found 
Frenchmen trading with the Indians | contrary 

to orders. They had some little wine in a pewter 

* This was the route taken by Marquette. The Kakalin 

rapid had been explored by Allouez, and mentioned in the Rel. 

1669-70. 

■j- This was the Jesuit mission at Green Bay. Tidings of 
Hennepin's safe arrival there, reached La Salle through the 
Outagamis or Foxes in March, 168 1. Margry i, p. 530. 
Hennepin here wrote to La Salle. Margry ii, p. 259. 



OF LOUISIANA. 259 

flagon, which enabled me to say mass ; I had 
then only a chalice and altar stone ; bat Provi- 
dence supplied me with sacerdotal vestments, 
for some Islinois flying from the tyranny of the 
Iroquois, who had destroyed a part of their nation, 
took the vestments of the chapel of Father 
Zenobius Membre, Recollect, who was with the 
Islinois in their flight. These savages gave me 
all, except the chalice, which they promised 
to restore in a few days for a present of tobacco. 

I had not celebrated holy mass for over nine 
months for want of wine; I had still some altar 
breads. We remained two days to rest, sing the 
Te Deum, high mass, and preach. All our 
Frenchmen went to confession and communion, 
to thank God for having preserved us amid so 
many wanderings and perils. 

One of our Frenchmen gave a gun for a canoe 
larger than ours, with which, after sailing a 
hundred leagues in the Bay of the Puants, we 
reached Missilimakinac, where we were obliged 
to winter. To employ the time usefully, I 
preached every holyday, and on the Sundays of 



26o A DESCRIPTION 

Advent and Lent.* The Outtaouctz and Hurons 
were often present,t rather from curiosity than 
from any inclination to live according to our 
Christian maxims. These last Indians said, to 
us speaking of our discovery, that they were men, 
but that we Frenchmen were spirits, because, 
had thev gone so far as we had, the strange nations 
would have killed them, while we went fearlessly 
everywhere. 

During this winter, we took w^hitefish in Lake 
Orleans, in twenty or twenty-two fathoms water. 
They served to season the Indian corn, which 
was our usual fare. Forty-t\^'o Frenchmen who 
were there trading with these Indians all begged 
me to give them the cord of St. Francis, which I 
readily did, making an exhortation at each 
ceremony. 

We left Missilimakinac in Easter week, 

* The Xouv. Decouv., p. 435, tells us that he enjoyed, dur- 
ing the winter, the hospitality of Father Pierson, a Jesuit and a 
fellow-townsmen of his own. 

t In a church covered with flags and some boards which the 
Canadians had built. Nouv, Dec, p. 434. 



OF LOUISIANA. 26 1 

i68i,"'^' and were obliged to drag our provisions 
and canoes on the ice, more than ten leagues on 
Lake Orleans ; having advanced far enough on 
this fresh water sea, and the ice breaking, we 
embarked after the solemnity of Low Sunday, 
which we celebrated, having some little wine 
which a Frenchman had fortunately brought, 
and which served us very usefully the rest of the 
voyage. After a hundred leagues way on Lake 
Orleans, we passed the strait for thirty leagues 
and Lake St. Clare, f which is in the middle and 
entered Lake Comty, where we killed, with sword 
and axe, more than thirty sturgeon which came 
to spawn on the banks of the lake. On the way 
we met an Outtaouact chief called le Talon, six 

* Du L'hut says March 29, 1681, see Appendix C. His 
rescue of Hennepin is attested by RafFeix's Map, where that 
Jesuit Father says : Mr. Du Lude who first was among the 
Sioux or Nadouesiou in 1678, and who was near the source of 
the Mississippi, and who then came to rescue F. Louis, who 
had been taken prisoner among the Sioux. Harrisse, Notes, 
p. 181, 208. La Salle's letter and Margry's Rel. deny any 
captivity. 

f This name is now written St, Clair, but we should either 
retain the French form Claire, or take the English Clare, It 
received its name in honor of the founder of the Franciscan 
nuns, from the fact that La Salle reached it on her day. 



262 



A DESCRIPTION 



persons of whose family had died of starvation, 
not having found a good fishery or hunting-ground. 
This Indian told us that the Iroquois had carried 
off a family of twelve belonging to his tribe, and 
begged us to deliver them, if yet alive. 

We sailed along Lake Conty, and after a hun- 
dred and twenty * leagues we passed the strait of 
the great falls of Niagara, and Fort Comty, and 
entered Lake Frontenac. We proceeded along 
the southern shore some thirty leagues from Fort 
Comty, to the great Seneca village about the 
Whitsuntide holidays in the year 1681. We 
entered the Iroquois council and asked them, why 
they had enslaved twelve of our Outtaouactz allies, 
telling them that those whom they had taken, 
were children of the governor of the French, as 
well as the Iroquois, and that by this violence, 
they declared war on the French. To induce 
them to restore our allies, we gave them two 
belts of wampum. 

The next day the Iroquois answered us by two 

* Nouv. Dec, p 443 has 140. He gives an extended de- 
scription of the FaL A'hich will be found in our appendix. 



OF LOUISIANA. 263 

Other wampum belts, that the Outtaouactz had 
been carried off by some mad young warriors ; 
that we might assure the governor of the French, 
that the Iroquois would hearken to him in all 
things ; that they wished to live with Onnontio 
like real children with their father (so they call 
all the governors of Canada), and that they would 
restore those whom they had taken. 

A chief named Teganeot, who spoke for his 
whole nation in all the councils, made me a 
present of otter and beaver-skins, to the value of 
over twenty-five * crowns. I took it with one 
hand, and gave it with the other to his son, 
telling him that I presented it to him to buy goods 
of the other Frenchmen ; that as for us, Bareteet, 
as the Iroquois call us, we would receive 
neither beaver nor furs, that I would assure the 
Governor of the French of their good will ; this 
Iroquois chief was surprized at my refusal of his 
present, and told the people of his tribe that the 
other French did not act so. We took leave of 
the most influential men and proceeded after 

* Nouv. Dec, p. 461 has 30. 



264 A DESCRIPTION 

about eighty leagues navigation on this lake, to 
Fort Frontenac where the dear Recollect Father 
Luke was very much surprised to see me, for it 
had been currently reported for two years that 
the Indians had hung me with our cord of St. 
Francis. All the settlers French and Indian, 
whom we had attracted to Fort Frontenac, gave 
me an extraordinary welcome, rejoicing at my 
return, the Indians calling me Otkon,* laying 
their hand on their mouth, which means to say 
" Barefoot is a Spirit, to have made so long a 
journey." 

At the mouth of Lake Frontenac the current 
is strong, and increases in velocity as you 
descend. The rapids are frightful. In two days 
and a half we descended this river St. Lawrence, 
with so much speed that we reached Montreal, 
which is sixty leagues from the said fort,f where 
the Count de Frontenac, Governor General of all 
New France then was. This Governor received 
me as well as a man of his probity can receive a 

* Atkon, a demon, a spirit. Bruyas, Racines, p. 36. 

f In less than two days. Nouv. Dec, p. 470. 



OF LOUISIANA. 265 

missionary, as he believed me killed, by the Indians, 
he was for a time thunderstruck, believing it to be 
some other Religious.* He beheld me extenuated, 
without a cloak, in a habit patched with bits of 
buffalo skin. He took me with him for twelve 
days to recruit me, and himself gave me the 
meat I was to eat, in the fear he experienced that 
I might fall sick, by eating too much after such 
long fasts. 

I made him an exact report of my voyage, and 
showed him the advantages to result from our 
new discovery. f 

* Nouv. Dec, p. 471, says Frontenac mistook Hennepin for 
his chaplain, Father Luke Fillatre, or a Recollect from Virginia, 
" where we have English Recollects." 

f The Nouv. Dec, p. 473, says he concealed his voyage 
down from Frontenac as his two ! canoemen did, because they 
would have been punished for making it against the ordinance 
and their furs would have been seized. It states, p. 474, that 
du L'but remained among the Ottawas, and that in a letter to 
Frontenac, the date of which is not given, he said that he had 
been unable to learn any tidings of Father Hennepin, his 
canoemen or their voyage. He states that while descending to 
Quebec with Count Frontenac, he met Bishop Laval near the 
river leading to Fort Champlain. 
21 



266 A DESCRIPTION 

While I was recruiting at Mr. de Frontenac's 
table, he received letters from Father Zenobius 
Membre, Recollect, whom I had left in the 
Illinois, who informed him that the progress of 
our discovery was interrupted by the Iroquois, 
and by an inexplicable fatility of some French- 
men who had abandoned Fort Crevecceur, that 
the commandant, the Sieur de Tonty, had left 
that post to go to the villages of the Islinois for 
Indian corn, and that during his abseiice, all the 
French whom he had left at that fort had de- 
serted and abandoned the Recollect Father 
Gabriel, who remained alone on the bank of the 
river Seignelay till an Islinois, who was returning 
from the hunt took the good old man to his village. 

The Sieur de la Salle before returning to Fort 
Frontenac had left the Miamis perfectly united 
with the Islinois, but the Iroquois who are 
cunning people, men of war and of deep designs, 
gained the Miamis by presents, which was 
accomplished just about the time that the French 
who had abandoned us at the Islinois, had taken 
refuge among the Miamis ; the next Autumn * 

* Sept. 12, 1680, Nouv. Dec, p. 479. 



OF LOUISIANA. 267 

the Iroquois with about eight hundred men armed 
with guns joined the Miamis and fell upon the 
Islinois who had only bows and arrows to defend 
themselves. The noise of the Iroquois guns so 
alarmed them, that these men who are great 
runners, took flight towards the river Colbert ; 
in this confusion, it was not difficult for the 
Iroquois, joined to the Miamis, to carry off 
about eight hundred slaves, including women and 
young boys. These cannibals ate on the spot some 
old Islinois men, and burned several others, who 
were not strong enough to follow them to the 
country of the Iroquois, a journey of more than 
tour hundred leagues. 

A little before the great onset of these savages 
some young Iroquois warriors, seeing the Sieur 
de Tonty, who had remained among the Islinois, 
with Fathers Gabriel and Zenobius, Recollects, 
and two other young Frenchmen, rushed upon 
him, taking him for an enemy. They gave him 
a stab with a knife, the point fortunately meet- 
ing a rib ; but the older Iroquois recognizing 
him as a Frenchman, separated them, and seeing 



268 A DESCRIPTION 

him slightly wounded, made him a present of a 
wampum belt, in the Indian fashion, to heal his 
wound, and wipe away his tears, assuring the two 
Recollects that they did not wish to kill the 
children of Onnontio, that is, the Governor of 
the French ; they asked from them a paper, in 
order to testify on their return to the whole 
French nation, the sincerity of their intention. 
They made the French embark to return to 
Canada. The Reverend Father Gabriel, Recol- 
lect, seeing the canoe loaded with beaver, threw 
several to the Iroquois, giving them to understand, 
that he was not there to amass furs ; their canoe 
breaking, the French were forced to land about 
eight leagues from the Islinois and light a lire in 
order to repair it. Father Gabriel retired a little 
way into the prairie to say his breviary. A panic 
having seized the Sieur de Tonty, who thought 
he had the Iroquois at his heels, he made Father 
Zenobius and the two young Frenchmen embark 
with such precipitation, that he crossed from one 
bank of the Seignelay river to the other, which is 
wide at this point, and left that good old man on 



OF LOUISIANA. 269 

the other bank, doing nothing but fire a gun 
about eight o'clock in the evening as a signal, 
but in vain. Father Zenobius wrote to the 
Reverend Father Valentine le Roux, Commissary 
Provincial of the Recollects in Canada, that he 
had implored the Sieur de Tonty not to embark 
without Father Gabriel, and that he had replied, 
that if he did not embark who would answer for 
him to the Governor of the country. Father 
Zenobius not having vigor enough or words 
sufficiently strong to persuade the Sieur de Tonty 
to wait a little, he was forced to follow him, 
although they perceived no enemies. The next 
day they crossed the river to the spot where they 
had left him, they saw foot prints in the grass of 
those beautiful plains, and not finding that good 
old man who undoubtedly was looking for them, 
the Sieur de Tonty took up his route for Canada 
by way of the Bay of the Puants. 

We have subsequentl}' learned by investigations 
made by order of the Count de Frontenac, Gov- 
ernor of Canada, that the Onnontaguez Iroquois * 

'^ The Nouv. Dec , p. 494-5, and La Salle, Margry ii, p. 
124, makes F. Gabriel killed by a band of Kickapoos. In the 
proceedings against the deserters, Margry ii, p. 103, Petit Blca 
and Boisdardenne vyere accused of deserting F. Gabrie . 



270 A DESCRIPTION 

seeing the French canoe abandon this old man, 
hid in the grass, fearing the guns which the 
French might have discharged at them, and as 
the canoe moved away, they advanced stealthily 
and tomahawked that man of God, whom we 
can style the Apostle of Louisiana. 

Our Recollect Fathers informed me last year 
from New France, that the Islinois after their 
defeat, pursued in great haste after the Iroquois 
who were all returning home triumphant, and 
that they found the body of Father Gabriel with 
his habit, that they carried him to their villages 
and buried him in their manner, doing honor to 
him who had gone among them to preach the 
faith to them, and for their consolation. Others 
have wished to assure us that the Kikapous had 
killed him and carried off his habit of Saint 
Francis to the village of the Miamis ; but the 
Count de Frontenac will give us all authentic 

information on his return. 

Notwithstanding * all to traverse our plans, we 
* From Fort Champlain, he went down to Quebec in a 
gayly painted canoe belonging to Count Frontenac, paddled by 
two of his guards. He proceeded at once to the Recollect 
convent to confer with F. Valentine le Roux, his Commissary 
Provincial. Nouv, Dec, p. 501. He charges this Father 
with copying his voyage down the Mississippi (p. S'^S)- 



OF LOUISIANA. 271 

have been more than eight hundred leagues be- 
yond the capital of New France, where I was 
for nearly eight months a slave among the Issati, 
and the Sieur de la Salle has succeeded in build- 
ing three barks, the last two of which one- 
of about fifty tons and the other of eighty, are dis- 
tant from one another nearly five hundred lea- 
gues, — in advancing in canoes beyond the three 
great lakes which are fresh water seas, and in 
pursuing his enterprise with Fathers Luke Brisset, 
Zenobius Membre, Recollects, and about fifty 
men. 

They wrote me this year (1682), from New 
France, that the Sieur de la Salle seeing that I 
had made peace with the nations on the north 
and northwest, situated more than five hundred 
leagues up the river Colbert, who were making 
war on the Islinois, and on the nations of the 
south, this brave captain, governor of Fort Fron- 
tenac, who exalts by his zeal and courage the 
names of the Caveliers his ancestors, descended 
last year with his force and our Recollects, as far 
as the mouth of the great river Colbert, and to 



272 A DESCRIPTION 

the sea, and that he passed among unknown 
nations, some of which are somewhat civiUzed. 
It is beHeved that he is on his way to France to 
give the Court an ample knowledge of all Louis- 
iana which we may call the Delight and Earthly 
Paradise of America. 1 

The King may form there an empire which 
will soon become flourishing, without any foreign 
power being able to prevent him, and his Majesty 
by the Religious Ministry of Saint Francis may 
easily extend the kingdom of Jesus Christ among 
those many nations, which have hitherto been 
deprived of the advantages of Christianity, and 
the French colonies may thence derive great 
benefits in future. 

END 



THE MANNERS OF THE INDIANS.* 

On the Fertility of the Indian Country. 

Before entering here into details as to the 
manners of the Indians, it is well to say a word 
as to the fertility of their country ; it can 
thus be judged how easy it is to found great 
colonies there. There are indeed many forests 
to clear, but these uncultivated parts are none the 
less advantageous. There are scarcely any in 
the world more fertile Nothing is wanting 
that is necessary for life ; every thing is in abun- 
dance, the lands there are very well adapted for 
sowing. In the vast countries of Louisiana, beau- 
tiful prairies are discovered as far as the eye can 
see, and to enter a little into detail as to things 
which grow among the Indians, there are many 
grape vines, very much like those we have in 
Europe, which bear grapes, somewhat sour, but 

* This part of the Description is not reprinted in the Nou- 

velle Decouverte^ but appears considerably enlarged in the 

Nouveau Voyage^ Utrecht 1698 ; reprinted in the Voyages au 
Nord, vol. 5. 



274 'THE MANNERS 

the wine goes very well with ours, it even pre- 
vents it from spoiling. In Louisiana and the 
southern country, the grape is as good as in France 
but the seeds are larger. In both parts are found 
hops, plums, cherries, citrons, apples, pears, nuts, 
filberts, gooseberries of all kinds and a thousand 
other fruits of that nature delicious in taste. In 
both parts grow Indian corn, French wheat, 
turnips, very fine melons, enormous squashes, 
cabbages and a host of other vegetables, of which 
I do not here recall the names. In the forests 
there are great numbers of wolves, monstrous 
bears, deer, stags, and all kinds of animals of 
which I do not know the names, among others 
wild cats, beavers, otters, porcupines, turkeys, and 
all these animals are of extraordinary size there. 
They catch there sturgeon, salmon, salmon trout, 
pike, carp, eels, armed fish, gold fish, bass, 
catfish, and all kinds of other fish.* There is 
plenty of exercise too for our French sportsmen. 
There you can kill patridges, ducks of all kinds, 
wild pigeons, cranes, herons, swans, wild geese, 
* Nouv. Voyage. (Voy. on Nord., v, p. 348.) 



OF THE INDIANS. 275 

and other game in abundance. In Louisiana, 
besides all these animals, there are also wild 
cattle whicli the inhabitants of the country have 
never been able to exterminate entirely, on 
account of the great number of these animals 
which change their country according to the 
season. Several medicinal herbs are found there 
which are not in Europe, which have an infallible 
effect, according to the experience of the Indians' 
who use them daily to heal all kinds of wounds, 
for quartain and tertian fevers, to purge and to 
allay pains in the kidneys and other like troubles. 
There are also many poisons which these people 
employ for self destruction. Snakes are common, 
particularly the adders, asps and another kind of 
serpent, which has a kind of rattles on its tail, 
and is called on that account rattlesnake. They 
are of prodigious length and bulk. They bite 
passers-by dangerously ; but wherever thev are, 
there are found also sovereign remedies against 
their bites. Frogs are seen there too of strange 
size, whose bellowing is as loud as the lowing of 
cows. The same trees are found here as in 



276 THE MANNERS 

Europe, and there are others also namely red 
pine, red cedar, spruce, cotton wood, sh, 
boisdier and others. All these trees strike i oot 
deeply and become extremely high, which 
sufficiently attests the fertility of the soil. The 
great river St. Lawrence * of which I have already 
given a description in the Relation of Louisiana, 
runs through the middle of the Iroquois country 
and there forms a large lake which the Indians 
call Ontario, and the French Frontenac, in 
memory of the Count de Frontenac, Governor 
of all New France. The river St. Lawrence 
has on the north side a branch which comes from 
a nation who are called Nez-persez orOntaonatz.f 
On the north-east is the country of the Algon- 
quains, which the French occupy. On the east 
the nation of the Wolf J and New Netherland or 
Jortz. On the south New England or Baton. 
On the southwest Virginia, which is called New 
Sweden. On the west the country of the Hurons, 

* Nouveau Voyage (Voyages au Nord, v., p. 349.^ 

t Misprint for Outaouatz, Ottawas. 

J Mohegans. 



OF THE INDIANS. 277 

which is now almost entirely abandoned, and 
which has been destroyed by the Iroquois. The 
first post which we have there is Fort Frontenac. 

Origin of the Indians. 

I am no longer surprised at the avowal of our 
historians, that they can not tell how the Indian 
country has been populated, since the inhabitants 
who ought to be the best informed, know 
nothing about it themselves. Besides which, if 
in Europe, we were like them deprived of writ- 
ing, and if we had not the use of that ingenious 
art, which brings the dead back to life, and 
recalls past times and which preserves for us an 
eternal memory of all things, we should not be 
less ignorant than they. It is true that they re- 
count some things about their origin ; but when 
you ask whether what they say about it is true, 
they answer that they know nothing about it, 
that they would not assure us of it, and that they 
believe them to be stories of their old men, to 
which they do not give much credit. If all 
North America had been discovered, we might 



278 THE MANNERS 

perhaps learn the spot where these persons came 
over to it, which would contribute not a little to 
throw light on some points of ancient history. 
A rather curious story is related among them. 
They say that a woman descended from heaven 

and remained sometime fluttering in the air, un- 
able to find a spot to rest her foot. The fish of 
the sea having taken compassion on her, held a 
council to deliberate which of them should re- 
ceive her ; the Tortoise presented himself and 
offered his back above the water. This woman 
came there to rest and made her abode there. 
The unclean matter of the sea having gathered 
around this tortoise, a great extent of land was 
formed in time, which now constitutes America. 
But as solitude did not at all please this woman, 
who grew weary of having no one to converse with, 
in order to spend her days a little more agreeably 
than she was doing, a spirit descended from on 
high, who found her asleep from sorrow. He 
approached her imperceptibly, and begot by her 
two sons, who came out of her side. These two 
children could never, as time went on, agree. 



OF THE INDIANS. 279 

because one was a better hunter than the other, 
every day they had some quarrel with each other, 
and they came to such a pitch that they could 
not at all bear one another ; especially one who 
was of an extremely fierce temper, conceived a 
deadly envy of his brother, whose disposition was 
completely mild. This one unable to endure the 
ill treatment which he continually received, was 
at last obliged to depart from him and retire to 
heaven, whence as a mark of his just resentment, 
he from time to time makes the thunder roar 
over the head of his unhappy brother. Some- 
time after the spirit descended again to this 
woman and had by her a daughter, from whom 
have come the mighty nation which now occupies 
one of the largest parts of the world. There are 
some other circumstances, which I do not re- 
member, but fabulous as this story is, you can 
not fail to discern in it some truths. The 
woman's sleep has some analogy with that of 
Adam ; the estrangement of the two brothers 
bears some resemblance to the irreconciliable 
hatred which Cain had for Abel, and the thunder 



28o THE MANNERS 

pealing from heaven, shows us very clearly the 
curse which God pronounced upon that merci- 
less fratricide.* One might even doubt whether 
they are not of Jewish origin, because they have 
many things in common with them. They 
make their cabins in the form of a tent like the 
Jews. They anoint themselves with oil, they 
are superstitiously attached to dreams, they be- 
wail the dead with lamentations and horrible 
bowlings, women wear mourning for their near 
relatives for a whole year, abstain from dances 
and feasts, and wear a kind of hood on their 
head. Usually the father of the deceased takes 
care of the widow. It seems too that the curse 
of God has fallen on them, as on the Jews, for 
they are brutal and extremely stubborn. They 
have no fixed and settled abode.f 

Physical Condition of the Indians. 

The Indians are very robust, men, women 
and even children are extremely vigorous ; for 

* Nouv. Voyage. Voy. au Nord., v., p. 264-6. 
■f" Voyages au Nord. v., p. 268. 



OF THE INDIANS. 20 1 

this reason they are rarely sick, they know 
nothing about treating themselves delicately, 
hence they are not subject to a thousand ailments 
which too great effeminacy draws down on us. 
They are not gouty or dropsical, gravel or fever- 
vexed, they are always in movement, and take 
so little rest, that they escape maladies which 
beset most of our Europeans for want of exercise ; 
appetite scarcely ever fails them, even when they 
are far advanced in years ; they are as a rule so 
given to eating, that they rise in the night to eat, 
unless they have meat or sangamity near them, 
for then they eat like dogs without getting up. 
Yet on the other hand they undergo great absti- 
nences, which would beyond doubt be unsupport- 
able to us. They go two or three days without 
eating, when such an occasion befals them, with- 
out on that account discontinuing their work, 
whether they are engaged in hunting, fishing or 
war. Their children are so inured to cold, that in 
mid winter they run bare naked on the snow, and 
roll in it like little pigs, without being in any 
22 



282 THE MANNERS 

way injured, and in summer when the air is full 
of musquitoes, they also go naked, and play 
without feeling the stings of these little insects. 
I admit that the fresh air to which they are con- 
stantly exposed contributes somewhat to harden 
their skin to fatigue, but this great insensibility 
must also come from an extremely robust con- 
stitution, in as much as our hands and face are 
always exposed to the air, without being for all 
that less sensitive to cold. When men are hunt- 
ing especially in the spring time, they are almost 
always in water, although it is very cold, and 
they return from it cheerfully to their cabins 
without complaining. When they go to war, 
they sometimes remain three or four days behind 
a tree, eating almost nothing. They are un- 
wearied in their hunts ; they run very fast and 
for a very long time. The nations of Louisiana 
run faster than the Iroquois, so that there is not 
a buffalo that they cannot run down. They sleep 
on the snow in a scanty blanket, without a fire 
and without cabin. The women act as porters, 
and have so much vigor, that there are few men 



OF THE INDIANS. 283 

in Europe who have as much as they. They 
carry burthens that two or three of us would find 
it difficult to raise. The warriors undertake 
journeys of three or four hundred leagues, as 
though it was only to go from Paris to Orleans. 
The women bear children without great pain, 
some of them leave the cabin and withdraw into 
the wood apart, and afterwards return with their 
children in their blanket. Others if labor comes 
on in the night, bring forth the children on their 
mats, without making the least noise, and in the 
morning rise and work as usual, inside and out- 
side the cabin, as if nothing ailed them. Remark 
also that while they are pregnant, they do not 
cease to be active, to carry very heavy loads, to 
plant Indian corn, and squashes, to go and come, 
and what is a wonder, their children are very 
well formed, humpbacks are very rare among 
them. To conclude, they have no natural bodily 
defects, which leads us to believe that their mind 
would easily adapt itself to this external disposi- 
tion, if they were civilized and had much inter- 
course with the French.* 

* Nouveau Voyage, (Voy. au Nord. v. pp. 295-7.) 



284 THE MANNERS 

Remedies against Diseases. 

When they are weary they enter a vapor bath 
to strengthen their limbs, and if their legs or 
arms pain, they take a well sharpened knife and 
make incisions in the part where the pain is. 
When the blood flows they scrape it with their 
knives or a stick till it ceases to flow. Then 
they cleanse the wound and rub it with oil or 
the fat of some animals. This is a sovereign 
remedy. They do the same when they have a 
pain in the head or arms. To cure tertian and 
quartan fevers, they make a medecine with a bark 
which they boil and give to drink immediately 
after the fever. They know roots and herbs 
with which they cure all kinds of diseases. They 
have sure remedies against the poison of toads, 
snakes and other animals, but have none against 
the small pox. There are charlatans whom they 
call jugglers. These are certain old men who 
live at other people's expense, by counterfeiting 
physicians in a superstitious manner. They do 
not use remedies, but when one of them is 



OF THE INDIANS. 285 

called to a sick man, he makes them entreat 
him, as if it were for some affair of great impor- 
tance and very difficult. After many solicitations 
he comes, he approaches the patient, touches 
him all over the body, and after he has well 
considered and handled him, he tells him that 
he has a spell in such or such a part, for example, 
in the head, leg or stomach, which must be re- 
moved, but that this can be done only with great 
difficulty, and many things must be done pre- 
viously. This spell is very malicious, he says; 
but it must be made to come out at any cost. 
All the sick man's friends who fall into the trap, 
say " T. Chagon, T. Chagon, courage,* courage ; " 
"do what you can, spare nothing." The juggler 
sits down, deliberates for a time on the remedies 
which he wishes to employ, then rises as if com- 
ing out of a deep sleep, and cries out. "See the 
thing is done! Listen, such a one, your wife or 

* Tsiagen ! good courage, Bruyas, Mohawk Diet. ms. 
Tchiguen, Courage, Onondaga Diet. p. 36. The Indian 
words cited in these remarks are Mohawk, the language of 
which Hennepin acquired some knowledge at Fort Frontenac, 
aided by Bruyas' works. 



2 86 THE MANNERS 

child's life is at stake, so spare nothing, you 
must give a feast, to day," " give such or such a 
thing," or do something else of the kind. At the 
san^e time that these orders of this juggler are 
carried out, the men enter the vapor bath and 
sing at the top of their voice, rattling tortoise 
shells or gourds full of Indian corn, to the sound 
of which the men and women dance. Some- 
times even they all get intoxicated, so that they 
make frightful orgies. While all are thus en- 
gaged, this superstitious old man is near the 
patient, whom he torments, holding his feet or 
legs, or pressing his chest, according to the spot 
where he has said the spell is, in such a way that 
he makes him undergo pain sufficient to kill 
him. He often makes the blood issue from the 
tips of his fingers or toes. At last after making 
a hundred grimaces, he displays a piece of skin 
or a lock of hair or something of the kind, mak- 
ing them believe it to be the spell which he has 
drawn from the patient's body, which is however, 
only a pure trick. 

I one day baptized a little child which seemed 



OF THE INDIANS. 287 

to be in danger of death, but the next day, it 
was cured. Some days after its mother related 
to the others, in my presence, how I had cured 
her child. She took me for a juggler, saying 
that I was wonderful, that I knew how to cure 
all sorts of diseases by putting water on the fore- 
head. They often have recourse to our mede- 
cines, because they find them very good, but 
when we do not succeed, they ascribe the cause 
to the medecine and not to the wretched state of 
the patient.* 



The Dress of the Indians. 

The Northern Indianc, from the statement of 

their old men, have always been covered, and 

before they had ever had any intercourse with 

Europeans, for they dressed in skins, both men 

and women. They now still cover themselves 

sometimes with skins, but most generally they 

wear a shirt, a coat with a hood, a strip of cloth 
*Nouveau Voyage, (V. au Nord v. ,pp. 292-4). 



288 THE MANNERS 

which covers them to the knees, and which is 
tied before and behind with a Httle belt, then 
they have footless stockings, which our French 
generally call leggins, and shoes which are merely 
of dressed skins. When they come in from their 
hunts in the Spring there are some who buy 
French body coats, shoes and stockings ; some 
wear hats out of the respect they have for the 
French. Sometimes they carry blankets in which 
they wrap themselves, holding the ends in their 
hands. When they are in their cabins, they 
very frequently remain stark naked, even in 
winter time, except a single band of cloth with 
which they are girt. They daub their faces 
with red and black colors, they redden their 
hair which they cut in every fashion. The 
southern nations do not burn them except to the 
ears, and those of the North often let them hang 
down on one side, and cut them on the other 
according to their fancy. Sometimes they stick 
little feathers all over the head, and sometimes 
large ones behind the ears. There are some 
who make themselves crowns of flowers ; others 



OF THE INDIANS. 289 

of birch bark, some of skins, very prettily worked. 

The women are dressed like the men except a 
band of cloth, wrapped around like a petticoat, 
which they fasten to their girdle and which does 
not hang down below the knees. When they 
go to entertainments to dance, they take their 
fineries, and paint their temples and cheeks and 
the tip of the chin. 

Young boys go naked till they are capable of 
marriage, and when they cover themselves, if 
they have no shirt, they always show what nature 
does not permit to uncover. Little girls at the 
age of four or live years, begin to gird a piece of 
cloth around them. When we went into their 
cabins to instruct them, we obliged them to cover 
themselves, which produces a good effect, because 
they now feel a little ashamed of their nakedness, 
and cover their persons a little more frequently 
than they did before. 

Men and women, especially the young ones, 
wear on the neck beads and sea shells of all kinds 
of shapes. They have also some of these shells, 
as long as the finger, made in the form of a little 



290 THE MANNERS 

tube, which are used as earrings. They have 
also belts, some made of beads, others of porcu- 
pine hair, some of bear's hair, others of both 
interwoven. The most important men among 
them wear on the back a small bag in which 
they carry their pipe, tobacco, steel and flint and 
other trifles. 

They are skilful in making a kind of cloak 
with dressed skins of the bear, beaver, otter, 
squirrel, wolf, lion, and other animals, in which 
to appear in their assemblies.* 

Marriages of the Indians, 

The marriage of the Indians is not a civil 
contract because they have no intention of bind- 
ing themselves, but they cohabit, till they disagree 
with one another. Girls are married at the age 
of nine or ten years, not for marriage, because 
they know well that they are incapable, but 
because the parents of this girl expect some profit 
from their son in law. In fact when he comes 
* Nouv. Voyage, (Voy. au. Nord v. pp. 297-9). 



OF THE INDIANS. 29I 

in from the hunt, the girl's father has the disposal 
of the furs and the meat, but on the other hand 
the girl carries the sagamity or porridge made of 
Indian corn, for all her husband's meals, rlthough 
she does not live with him. Some act thus five 
or six years. On the day when they marry, 
they give feasts with pomp and rejoicing. Some- 
tinies the whole village goes there, and every one 
makes good cheer. After the meal they sing 
and dance. Very frequently they marry without 
any noise, and for this only a word is needed, for 
the Indian who has no wife goes in search of a 
woman who has no husband, and says to her : 
" Will you come with me. You shall be my 
wife." She makes no answer at first, but thinks 
for sometime holding her head in her two hands. 
While she is thus thinking, the man holds his 
head in the same posture without uttering a 
word. When she has deliberated sometime she 
lifts up her head and says : " Niau, lam willing,"* 
the man rises at once, and says to her; "One" 
"that is settled. "f In the evening the woman 

"' Nis, Yes, Bruyas, Mohawk Dicty. ms. 

f Onne, That is settled, lb. 



292 THE MANNERS 

takes her hatchet, and goes to cut a load of fire 
wood ; on reaching the door of her husband's 
cabin, she throws the wood on the ground, goes 
in and sits down near the Indian, who gives her 
no caress. When they have been thus long 
together without speaking, the man says to her : 
" Sentaony," "lie down,"* and a little while 
after this man lies down near her. 

You see very few who make love like Euro- 
peans, laughing and flirting. 

They leave each other very easily and without 
any publicity, for they have only to say " I leave 
you," and the thing is done. They then regard 
each other no more than if they had never met. 
They sometimes fight with each other before 
separating, but this occurs very rarely. Some 
have two wives, but it is not for a long time. 
When they separate the woman sometimes carries 
off all the goods, and all the furs ; sometimes 
nothing at all but the short piece of cloth that 
forms her petticoat, and her blanket. They 
generally divide the children, if they have had 

* Imperative of Gasataon, To lie down on the back, lb. 



OF THE INDIANS. 293 

any together, so that some follow the father and 
some the mother. Some leave them all to their 
wives, saying that they do not believe they belong 
to them. In fact they very often say the truth, 
because there are very few who are proof against 
a coat and any other present that may be offered. 
If these children are of a French father, you can 
detect it in the tace and eyes. Those of the 
Indians are entirely black, and they can see 
further than Europeans, and they have a more 
piercing eye. If the Indian women were capable 
of contracting marriage, we might marry as many 
as we would to our Frenchmen, but they have 
not the necessary dispositions, they have not the 
faith necessary for that, nor the will never to 
separate from their husband, as experience teaches 
us, and the conversations they hold on the point, 
show us clearly. When a man who has no wife 
passes through a village he hires one for a night 
or for two according to his fancy, and the parents 
find nothing to censure in this; very far from 
that, they are very glad to have their daughters 
earn some clothes or some furs. Among them 



294 THE MANNERS 

there are men of all kinds of dispositions as in 
Europe; some love their wives a great deal, others 
entirely despise them, some beat them and ill 
treat them ; but this does not last, as the wives 
leave them. There are some too who are jealous. 
I saw one who had beaten his wife, for having 
gone to the dance with other men. 

Those v/ho are good hunters chose the hand- 
somest ; the others have only the ugly ones, and 
the cast-off. When they are old, they never 
abandon each other except in rare cases, and for 
grave reasons. There are some, although very 
few, who remain from twenty to thirty years 
with their wives. The women grow desperate 
when the husband who is a good hunter leaves 
them ; they even poison themselves sometimes, 
as I saw one whose life I saved with treacle. 
When these Indians go beaver hunting in the 
spring, they often leave their wives in the village 
to plant Indian corn, and squashes, and hire 
another to go with them : when they return 
home they give her a beaver or two, and send 
her home in that way and go back to the first 



OF THE INDIANS. 295 

wife. If however the last pleases them better, 
they change the first without any ado. They 
are surprised that the Frenchmen do not act 
like them. 

One day while the husband of one of our 
French women settlers had gone off twenty or 

thirty leagues, the Indian women went to see 
this woman, and said to her : " You have no sense, 

take another man for the present, and when your 

husband comes, leave this one." This great 

inconstancy and changing of wives, is a great 

opposition to the maxims of Christianity, which 

we wish to impart to the Indians, and one of the 

most considerable obstacles to the faith. 

It is not the same with the southern nations 
among whom poligamy reigns, for in all the lands 
of Louisiana, there are Indians, who have as many 
as ten or eleven wives, and are often married to 
three own sisters, alleging as a reason that they 
agree better among themselves. 

When a man makes presents to the father and 
mother of a girl, she belongs to him as his own 
for her whole life if he wishes ; sometimes the 



296 THE MANNERS 

parents take back children from their son-in-law, 
restoring the presents which they have received 
from him, but this is very rare. If a woman 
should be unfaithful, her husband would cut off 
her nose, ear or would give her a slash in the 
face with a stone knife, and if he should kill 
her, he would clear himself by making a present 
to the dead woman's kindred to dry up their tears. 
I have seen several badly marked on the face, 
who had nevertheless children by some scurvy 
fellows. The men in the warm countries are 
more jealous of their wives than those of the 
north. The former are so sensitive in matters 
of this kind, that they wound and sometimes 
kill one another, through some love madness. 
The young warriors do not often approach 
women till they reach the age of thirty years, 
because they say that intercourse with women 
prevents their running. The men there go en- 
tirely naked, but the women are partly covered 
with very neat skins, especially at the dances and 
ceremonies. The girls curl their hair and the 
women wear theirs after the gypsy fashion.* 
* Nouveau Voyage, (Voy. au Nord, v. pp. 286-291.) 



OF THE INDIANS. 297 

Indian Feasts. 

They have several kinds of feasts, war, death 
and marriage feasts, feasts to cure the sick ; they 
also have ordinary ones They formerly gave 
obscene ones, where men and women associated 
pell mell, but if they do so now, it is very rarely. 
When they wish to go to war, it is for some 
wrong which, they pretend, has been done them ; 
sometimes in consequence of a dream, and often 
because this fancy has come to them, or because 
others ridicule them in these terms : *' You have 
no courage, you have never been to war, you 
never killed a man." When they wish to go 
alone, in such a case they make no feasts, but 
they merely say to their wife: "Make me some 
meal, I am going to war." When they wish to 
have companions they go through the whole 
village to invite the young men to the feast. 
These take each his kettle or platter and go to 
the cabin of the one who has invited them, 
where he awaits them singing. His songs all 
23 



298 THE MANNERS 

turn on war. " I am going to war, I am going 
to avenge the death of my kinsman. I will slay, 
I will burn, I will bring back slaves, I will eat 
men," and other things of the kind, which 
breathe only cruelty. When all have come the 
kettles are filled and they begin to eat. And 
while the giver ot the feast continues his singing 
all the while, exhorting all to follow him, they 
do not say a word, and they eat all that they have 
without speaking, unless from time to time some 
one or other will say : " Netho,"* or *' Togenska,' 
"Yes, you are right." After they have eaten all, 
this master of the feast makes them a harangue, 
and thev reply from time to time : " Netho," 
" Yes." When he closes the speech, he says : 
•' See it is settled. I start to morrow," or in two 
days, three days, in a month, as his fancy dictates. 
On the morrow or some other day, those who 
chose to accompany him, go to him and say : "I 
go to war with you." He says : "There, that is 
settled. Let us get ready for such a day." They 

* Etho, Yes. Bruyas, iMuhawk Dicty. ms. Neto, Yes. 
Onondaga Diet., p. 76. 



OF THE INDIANS. 299 

sometimes give ten such feasts before setting out. 
Formerly they gave very obscene ones before 
going to war. For if a girl failed to give her- 
self up to the one whom the leader of the party 
had prescribed for her, all the misfortunes that 
happened in the warlike enterprises was ascribed 
to her, so ingenious is the devil in matter of lust. 
When they marry their children, they give no 
feasts ; sometimes they do, when they observe 
certain ceremonies. The first thing they do is 
to think of the eating; for this purpose they fill 
great kettles with meat, according to the number 
of those whom they wish to invite, when the 
meat or sangamity is cooked, they go to invite 
their guests, saying as they place a little billet of 
wood in the hand : " I invite you to my feast." 
No sooner said than done, it is unnecessary to 
return a second time there. All proceed thither 
with their kettles and platters. The master of 
the house makes the distribution of the portions 
very fairly, and the giver of the feast or some 
other in his stead sings constantly, till all is eaten. 
After the meal they sing and dance, and each 



3CO 



THE MANNERS 



one returns hoire without uttering a word, except 
some who thank him who has invited them. 

Feasts to heal a sick person are given almost in 
the same way. 

The death feasts are sad and mournful. There 
no one sings or dances ; but the relatives of the 
dead remain in deep silence, and show a downcast 
countenance, in order to move the invited to 
compassion. All who come to this feast bring 
presents and throwing them to the nearest rela- 
tives they say : " Hold, this is to wipe away your 
tears, to dig the deceased's grave, to cover him, 
to build a cabin. Hold, here is to make a fence 
around his grave." After they have thus given 
their presents, and emptied their kettles, they 
return home without saying a word. As for 
common feasts, they are conducted in all sorts of 
manners, according to their fancy.* 

Games of the Indians. 

They have games for men, for the women, 
and for the children. The most common for 
* Nouveau Voyage. (Voyages au Nord v. pp. 281—4). 



OF THE INDIANS. 3OI 

men are with certain fruits which have seeds black 
on one side and red on the other; they put them 
in a wooden or bark platter on a blanket, a great 
coat or a dressed skin mantle. There are six or 
eight players. But there only two who touch 
the platter alternately with both hands, they raise 
it, and then strike the bottom of the platter on 
the ground by this shaking to mix up the six 
seeds, then if they come five red or black, turned 
on the same side, this is only one throw gained, 
because they usually play several throws to win 
the game, as they agree among them. All those 
who are in the game, play one after another. 
There are some so given to this game, that they 
will gamble away even their great coat. Those 
who conduct the game, cry at the top of their 
voice, when they rattle the platter, and they strike 
their shoulders so hard as to leave them all black 
with the blows. 

They also oiten play with a number of straws 
half a foot long or thereabouts. There is one 
who takes them all in his hand, then without 
looking he divides them in two, Wiien he has 



302 THE MANNERS 

separated them, he gives one part to his antago- 
nist. Whoever has an even number, according 
as they have agreed, wins the game. 

They have also anothei game, which is very 
common among litt e children in Europe. They 
take kernels of Indian corn or something of the 
kind, then they put some in one hand, and ask 
how many there are. The one who guesses the 
number wins. 

They also play a game which they call in their 
language : Ounonhayenty. But it is rather a 
trade than a game. They get into two cabins 
six in one, and six in the other. Then there is 
one who takes some goods or furs, and what he 
wishes to exchange ; he goes to the door of the 
other cabin and utters a cry. Those in the cabin 
give it an echo. The first approaches and savs 
chanting, that he wishes to sell what he holds in 
his hands. Those within reply " hon, hon, hon, 
hon, hon, hon." The seller having ended his 
whole song, throws his merchandise mto the 
cabin and returns home. Then the others having 
examined the prize, and asked the seller whether 



OF THE INDIANS. 303 

he desires in exchange a great coat, a shirt, a 
pair of shoes or some other thing of the kind, 
one of them goes to carry to the other cabin the 
equivalent of what has been thrown in, or restores 
the goods so thrown, if it does not suit him, or 
if it is not worth what he brinp:s as exchansre. 

CD i> 

These ceremonies are accompanied by songs 
which gladden both parties. 

The children play with bows and with two 
sticks, one large and one small. They hold the 
little one in the left, and the larger one in the 
right hand, then with the larger they make the 
smaller one iiy up in the air, and another runs 
after it, and throws it at the one who sprung it. 
This game resembles that of children in Europe, 
They also make a ball of flags or corn leaves, 
which they throw in the air and catch on the 
end of a pointed stick. 

Adults both men and women, in the evening, 
around the fire, tell stories after the manner of 
Europeans.* 

* Nouv, Voyage. {Vo} . au Nord v. p. 300,) 



304 THE MANNERS 

The Rudeness of the Indians. 

The Indians trouble themselves very little with 
our civilities, on the contrary, they ridicule us 
when we practice them. When they arrive in 
a place, they most frequently salute no one, but 
remain squatting down, and though everybody 
come to look at them, they look at no one. 
Sometimes they enter the first cabin they come 
to, without saying a word. They take their 
place where they may happen to be, then they 
light their pipes and smoke some time without 
speaking. When they come into our houses, 
they take the first place. If there is a chair 
before the fire, they take possession of it, and do 
not rise for any one. Men and women hide only 
their private parts. They break wind before all 
the world without caring for any one. They 
treat their elders very uncivilly, even breaking 
wind in their very faces. There conversation 
whether among men or women is generally only 
indecency and ribaldry. As regards their inter- 
course with their wives, they generally conceal 



OF THE INDIANS. 305 

themselves, yet sometimes they do not. How- 
ever they show no other marks of outward inde- 
cency either from hatred or caresses. And they 
never show countenances Hke those we see 
practised by Europeans. 

They never wash their platters which are of 
wood or bark, nor their bowls or their spoons. 
When the women cleanse their children with 
their hands, they rub them slightly on a bark, 
and will then touch the meat they eat. They 
scarcely ever wash their hands or face. Chil- 
dren have little respect for their parents ; fathers 
allow their children to beat them, because they 
say that if they punish their children, they would 
be too timid and would not be good warriors. 
They eat in a snuffling way and puffing like 
animals. As soon as men enter a house they 
smoke. If they find a pot covered they uncover 
it, they uften eat from the platter where their 
dogs have eaten without washing it. When they 
eat fat meat, they grease their whole faces with 
it. They belch continually. Those who have 
intercourse with the French, scarcely ever wash 



306 THE MANNERS 

their shirts, but let them rot on their backs. 
They seldoni cut their nails. They rarely wash 
meat before putting it in the pot. Their cabins 
are ordinarily very dirty. They eat lice. The 
women make water before any one and in a full 
gathering. When their children make water on 
their blankets, they throw it off with their hands. 
They often eat lying down like dogs. In fine, 
they put no restraint on their actions, and follow 
simply the animals.* 

Courtesy of the Indians. 

Amid all these incivilities, you find some 
courtesies. When any one enters their cabins 
while they are eating, they most frequently offer 
him their kettle. So ise also offer us the best 
place in their cabins when we pay them a visit. 
Those who have had much intercourse with the 
French, salute us when we meet them. It is 
also a maxim of civility among them, to make a 
return when you give anything. Although they 
* Nouveau Voyage. (Voy. au Nord v. pp. 339-341.) 



OF THE INDIANS. 307 

treat their elders uncivilly, they nevertheless re- 
spect their advice, which they very often follow, 
because they say that the old men have more ex- 
perience and know affairs better. At feasts they 
often make a distinction between men of con- 
sideration and the others, for they give them the 
whole head of the animal and the most honor- 
able portion. They make presents to one another, 
and very often give feasts. They also show de- 
ference to the old in allowing them to govern 
afl^airs, because this is honorable among them. 
There are some also, although very few, who 
salute us in French style. I have seen one who 
was called Garakontie, that is to say, " the sun 
which marches,"* who haranguing before the 
Count de Frontenac, took off his cap every time 
he began a new topic. Another, Chief of the 
Goiogoins (Cayugas) seeing a little girl w^hom 
he had given to the govern jr of the country to 

* This was not the great Daniel Garakontie, who died about 
the time Hennepin came to America, Rel. 1673-9 p. 190 ; but 
his brother. From Garakwa, sun, Bruyas Fr. Mohawk Dicty. 
nis : Onondaga Diet., p. 94. Tie expresses action while 
walking. Bruyas, Racines Agnieres, p. 6. 



308 THE MANNERS 

be instructed, said very civilly, " Onontio (this is 
what they call the governors of the French), you 
are the master of this girl, so do that she may 
learn to read and write well. When she is 
grown up, you will give her back to me or take 
her for your wife." I have seen another who 
was called Atreouati, that is to say the Big Throat 
(Grand Gueule) * who eat with us like the French. 
He washed his hands, took his place at table last, 
unfolded his napkin properly, ate with his fork, 
in fine did all that we do, but frequently out of 
malice and apishness and to get some present 
from the French.f 



Manner of making War. 

The Iroquois pass for being the most warlike 
among the Indians whom we have known till 
now. They have in fact defeated several nations, 
and those which remain have been obliged to 
surrender to them. They have among them 

* This is a French nick name, not a translation of his name. 
f Nouv. Voyage, (Voy. au Nord. v p. 341-3.) 



OF THE INDIANS. 309 

men of rank, who are, as it were, chiefs of bands. 
These are masters when they travel. They have 
men under them, who follow them everywhere 
and obey them in everything. Before setting 
out, they get a supply of good guns, powder, 
balls, kettles, axes and other munitions of war. 
Sometimes young women and young boys accom- 
pany them. In this trim they often march three 
or four hundred leagues. When they approach 
the place where they wish to kill men, they 
march slowly and with much precaution, and 
never fire a gun at animals, but then employ a 
bow which makes no noise, and when firing they 
look all around for fear of being surprised. They 
send spies to discover the mode of entering 
villages, and to see where they shall begin the 
attack, or to watch when any one comes out so 
as to surprise him, and this is what generally 
happens. For they never strike, except treacher- 
ously, watching a man behind a tree as though 
they wished to kill a wild beast. It is bv this 
they know good warriors, when they know how 
to surprise As soon as they have struck their 



3IO THE MANNERS 

blow, if they know how to get well off, they 
are incomparable. Their patience is wonderful, 
for when they see themselves well hidden they 
very frequently remain two or three days behind 
a tree without eating, waiting for an opportunity 
to kill a man. Sometimes they march openly 
and fearlessly, but this is very rare. 

When they were at war with the French 
one of their considerable men, called Atreouati, 
went with eleven or twelve others to kill one of the 
priests of the Seminary of St. Sulpice, who was 
in a village which is called La Chine. On arriv- 
ing there he found some Frenchmen to whom 
he said : I am going to kill such a one. In fact 
he killed him some days after * This same man, 
having on another occasion missed his blow, 
marched into Montreal, crying : " Hay, hay,'* 
which is a sign of peace. He was immediately 
received. They made him presents and good 
cheer, but as he went out he killed two men 
who were roofing a house. Some have told us 

* This was Rev. James Lemaitrc, killed Aug. 29, 1661, 
See Shea's Charlevoix, iii, pp. 35, 303. 



OF THE INDIANS. 3II 

that they had been in war as far as the lands of 
the Spaniards who are in New Mexico, because 
they relate that they have been in a country 
where the inhabitants gathered red earth which 
they took and sold to a nation, who sold them 
axes, kettles and other like things. This earth 
apparently was gold.* Those who do not go to 
war are despised and pass for poltroons and cowards. 
They attack all other nations, and no one dare 
resist them. This renders them proud and in- 
sufferable, they call themselves on this account 
men by excellence,')* as though all other nations 
were but beasts compared to them. J 



Cruelty of the Indians. 

We are surprised at the cruelty of tyrants and 
hold them in horror : but that of the Iroquois is 

* In the Noiiv. Voy. he intimates that the Iroquois related 
this to LaSalle at Fort Frontenac, and probably only to gratify 
him. 

f Ontwe Ongwe. Bruyas, Racines Agnieres, p. 119. 
\ Nouv. Voyage (Voy. au Nord. v. p. 303-7.) 



312 THE MANNERS 

not less horrible. When they have killed a man, 
they tear off the skin from his skull and carry it 
home as a sure mark of their trophies. When 
they have made a prisoner, they bind him and 
make him run. If he cannot follow them, they 
give a blow on the head with a hatchet and 
leave him after taking his head of hair or scalp. 
They do not spare even children at the breast. 
If the prisoner can walk, they bind him a 
night. They treat him the most cruelly they 
can. They plant four posts in the ground to 
which they tie his hands and feet, thus exposing 
him all night on the ground to the rigor of the 
season. I say nothing of a hundred other evils 
they wreak on him during the day. When they 
arc near their villages, they utter loud cries by 
which their countrymen know that it is their 
warriors returning with slaves. At the same 
time men and women put on their best dress and 
go out to receive them at the entrance of the 
village, where they draw up in a double line to 
make the prisoners pass in the middle ; but it is 
a pitiable reception for these wretched people. 



OF THE INDIANS. 313 

inasmuch as this rabble fall upon them like 
dogs on their prey, beginning at once to torment 
them, while the warriors pass in file quite haughty 
over their exploits. Some kick these poor slaves, 
others beat them with clubs, many give them 
slashes with their knives. Some tear off their 
ears or cut off the nose and lips, so that most 
succumb and die during this pompous entrance. 
Those who have most vigor, are reserved for a 
greater torture. Nevertheless they spare some, 
but rarely ; when the warriors have entered their 
cabins, all the elders assemble to hear the report 
of all that has occurred in the war, then they dis- 
pose of the slaves. If the father of an Indian 
woman has been killed by their enemies, they 
give her a slave in his place, and it is optional 
with this woman to grant him life or put him to 
death. The following is what they do, when 
they wish to burn them; they bind them to a 
stake by the feet and hands, then they heat red 
hot gun barrels, axes and other iron ware, and 
apply them from the legs to the head. They 
24 



314 THE MANNERS 

tear out their nails with their teeth, they cut off 
slices of flesh from their back, and often scalp 
them. Then they put live coals on the wound, 
cut out their tongue and make them undergo 
all the tortures that they can think of. After 
having tormented them in this style, if they are 
not yet dead, they unbind them and by blows of 
clubs compel them to run. It is related that 
there was a slave who ran so well that he escaped 
in the woods, without their being able to catch 
him, but who apparently died for want of help. 
What is moreover surprising is, that these slaves 
sing amid their tortures, which provokes their 
executioners immensely. 

It is related that there was one who said to 
them : *'You have no sense, you do not know the 
way to torture ; you are cowards ; if I had you in 
my country, I would make you suffer much more ;" 
but while he was speaking in this way a woman 
heated a little iron skewer red hot in the fire and 
ran it into his private parts. Then he uttered a 
cry, and told her : *' You have sense, you know, 
that is the way to do." 



OF THE INDIANS. 315 

When the prisoner whom they have burned 
dies, they eat him and make their children drink 
his blood, in order to render them cruel and in- 
human. Those whose lives they spare, are like 
slaves and servants among them, but in course of 
time, they lose their slave state, and are treated 
as belonging to the nation. 

The Indians of the whole of Louisiana, which 
is more than 600 leagues from the Iroquois, par- 
ticularly the Nadousiouz among whom I was 
made a prisoner, are not less brave in person. 
They also make all the surrounding nations 
tremble, although they have only bows and 
arrows. They run faster than the Iroquois, but 
are not so inhuman, and they do not eat the 
flesh of their enemies, being satisfied with burn- 
ing them. Having one day seized a Huron who 
was eating human flesh like an Iroquois, they 
cut slices from his body, and told him : You 
who love human flesh, eat your own, to show 
your nation, that we look with horror on your 



3l6 THE MANNERS 

maxims, for your people are like dogs that eat 
every kind of meat, when they are hungry.* 



Indian Policy. 

What keeps the Iroquois up and renders them 
so formidable is their councils, which they hold 
continually for the slightest matter. For a mere 
trifle they assemble and reason together a long 
time, so that they undertake nothing rashly. If 
a complaint is made that any one of them has 
stolen anything, they first use every effort to find 
the one who committed the theft. If they can- 
not discover him, or he has not wherewith to 
make restitution, provided they are convinced of 
the truth of the fact, they make some presents 
to the injured party to satisfy him. When they 
wish to put any one of their own to death whom 
they deem guilty, in order that his relatives may 
hvae no ground for vengeance, they hire a man 
who drinks to excess, then when he has struck 
* Nouv. Voyage ; Voyages au Nord v. v. pp. 307-10. 



OF THE INDIANS. 3 IJ 

the blow, they give as the only reason, that he 
had no sense, that intoxication impelled him to 
do so. They formerly had another way of doing 
justice, but it is abrogated. They had one day 
in the year which might be called the Feast of 
Fools,* for in fact they played the fool, running 
from cabin to cabin, so that if they ill treated 
any one, or took any thing, the next day they 
said : I was crazy, I had no sense, and the others 
are satisfied with this excuse, without taking 
vengeance or requiring satisfaction. When they 
wished to kill a man, they hired one, who while 
playing the madman, killed the one marked out 
tor him. They have spies among them who are 
all the time coming and going, and who report 
all the news they hear. 

As regards trade, they are shrewd enough, they 
do not easily allow themselves to be deceived, 
but they consider everything attentively and study 
to know the goods. The Ounontaguez are more 

* The Ononhouaroia, see Rel. de la NouveUe France, 1656, 
p. 26 ; L636, p. 1 10. 



3l8 THH MANNERS 

cunning than the others and more adroit in 
stealing and in doing other things of the kind.* 



Manner of hunting. 

For their hunts they observe the times and 
seasons. They kill moose and deer at all times, 
but especially when there is snow. They hunt 
wild cats during the winter and porcupines ; 
beaver and otter in the spring and sometimes in 
the fall. They generally surprise moose or elk 
by a running noose. They kill bears on the 
trees when they are eating acorns. As for wild 
cats they cut down the trees on which they are, 
then their dogs spring on them and strangle them. 
The porcupines are taken almost in the same 
way, except that they are killed with blows of 
their hatchets, when the tree falls, because the 
dogs cannot approach them on account of their 
long pointed hairs like awls (quills) which can 
insensibly pierce a man's body. They kill dogs 
that attempt to strangle them, if these hairs are 

* Nouv. Voyage. (Voy. au. Nord v. p. 31 1-2.) 



OF THE INDIANS. 319 

not taken out, which are longer and sharper than 
those of hedge hogs. These animals do not run 
fast, a man can easily run them down. As for 
otters they are taken in a trap or they are killed 
with gun shot, and very seldom with axes, be- 
cause they are very cunning. 

The Indians take beaver in winter under the 
ice. They first seek the lakes of these animals. 
The beavers have admirable ingenuity ; when 
they wish to change their place, they select a 
stream in the woods, which they ascend till they 
find a flat country suitable for making a pond. 
When they have well considered the place in all 
directions, they set to work to make dams to stop 
the water, as strong as those of ponds in Europe. 
The dam being built of wood, earth and mud 
as high as is necessary to make a large pond, 
which is sometimes a quarter of a league in length, 
they build their cabins in the middle, on a level 
with the water, with wood, flags and mud, neatly 
plastered by means of their tails, which are longer 
and broader than a trowel. Their structure has 
three or four stories, full of flag mats, where they 



320 THE MANNERS 

bear their young, which they engender by coition 

like all land animals. At the bottom of the 

water there are upper and lower places of exit. 

When the ponds are frozen, they can only go 

under the ice ; hence when winter sets in, they 

lay up a stock of aspen wood, which is their 

ordinary food ; they put it in the water all around 

the cabin. There are sometimes three or four 

cabins in a lake. The Indians break the ice 

around their house, with an axe handle or a pole. 

They make a hole and sound the bottom of the 

water to know whether it is the path by which 

the beaver come out. If they really find that it 

is their passageway, they insert a net about a 

fathom long and two stakes which touch the 

bottom of the water at one end, while the other 

passes through the hole and is high above the 

ice. There are two cords fastened to the poles 

to draw the net when the beaver is taken ; but 

that the cunning animal may not see the net nor 

their persons, they spread over the water rotten 

wood, cotton or some thing of the kind. An 

Indian remains on the watch near the nets with 



OF THE INDIANS. 32 I 

a hatchet to draw the beaver on the ice, while 
the others go to break in the cabins with great 
labor, because there is often a foot of earth and 
wood to be broken and cut by blows of the axe, 
the whole being frozen as hard as stone. And 
then they sound the lake in all directions : where 
they find a hollow, they break the ice for fear 
the beaver may hide, and in order that being 
forced to run from place to place, they may at 
last run into their nets. They labor with the 
same force, often from morning to night, without 
taking anything. Sometimes they catch only 
three or four. They also take beaver in the 
spring in traps in the following manner. When 
the ice begins to melt, they observe the places 
where they come out, and there they set a trap. 
The bait or lure is a branch of aspen, which runs 
from the trap into the water. When the beavers 
come to it, they eat it up to the trap, where they 
cause two heavy blocks of wood to fall which 
crush them. They take martins almost in the 
same manner except that they do not bait the 
traps. 



32 2 THE MANNERS 

All the nations in the south or Louisiana, are 
more superstitious in their hunts, than the 
northern tribes and the Iroquois. While I was 
there, their old men, six days before setting out 
to hunt the wild cattle, sent four or five of their 
most alert hunters on the mountains to dance 
the calumet, with as much ceremony as to the 
nations, to which they are accustomed to send 
embassies to form an alliance. On the return of 
their deputies they exposed to the sight of all 
the world for three days, one of the largest kettles 
which they had stolen from us, which they sur- 
rounded with feathers of all sorts of colors, with 
a gun of our French canoemen, which they placed 
across the top. During three days the first wife 
of a chief carried this kettle on her back in great 
pomp, at the head of more than 200 hunters, who 
followed an old man, who had fastened one of 
our Armenia handkerchiefs at the top of a stick 
in the shape of an ensign, holding his bow and 
arrows in his hand in deep silence. This old 
man made them halt three or four times to weep 
bitterly for the death of the cattle. At the last 



OF THE INDIANS. 323 

halt, the oldest among them sent two of their 
ablest to discover the buffalo. They whispered 
in their ears very softly. On their return before 
beginning the attack on these monstrous animals, 
they lit dry buffalo dung, and lit their pipes or 
calumets with this new fire, to make the couriers, 
whom they had sent, smoke, and immediately 
after this ceremony, a hundred men went behind 
the mountains on one side, and a hundred on the 
other to shut in the buffalo whom they killed in 
great contusion. The women boucanned the 
meat in the sun, eating only the poorest, in order 
to carry the best to their villages, more than two 
hundred leagues from this great butchery. 

Their manner of Fishing. 

They catch all kinds of fish which they take 

with snares, nets and harpoons. As in Europe 

they also catch some with lines, but very few. 

I have seen them fish with snares in a very curious 

way. They take a little fork, at the end of 

which between the two points they fix a string 
* Nouv. Voyage. (Voy. au. Nord., v. p. 317.) 



324 THE MANNERS 

almost in the same manner that they set them in 
France to take partridges. Then they put it in 
the water and when the fish pass, present it to 
them. The fish having gone in, they jerk it and 
the fish is caught by the gills. I taught them 
to take them by hand in the spring. 

The most important of their fisheries is that of 
eels, salmon and white fish. The chief fishery 
of the Mohawks who are neighbors of New 
Jork is that of frogs, which they put whole 
into their kettles, unskinned even, to season their 
sagamity of Indian corn. They take white fish 
in great abundance at Niagara where Fort Conty 
stands. The salmon or rather salmon trout, are 
taken in several other places around Lake Fron- 
tenac. They take eels by night when it is a fair 
Calm. These fish descend along the river St. 
Lawrence in great quantities. They put a large 
piece of bark full of earth on the end of a log 
and light it as a kind of torch, which makes a 
very clear fire, then a man oi two at most, enter 
a canoe with a spear placed between the two 
tines of a little fork. When by the light of the 



OF THE INDIANS. 325 

fire they see an eel, they harpoon a very great 
quantit}-. They take salmon with spears and 
white fish with nets. The people of the south 
are so keen, although fish pass very quick in the 
water, they never fail to kill them with strokes 
of darts, which they send very far into the water 
with their bows, and they have pointed poles so 
long and eyes so sharp sighted that they spear 
and bring in large sturgeon and trout, which are 
seven or eight fathoms in the water.* 



Utensils of the Indians. 

Before the Europeans went to America, the 
Indians used, and all the nations of Louisiana 
still use to this day, earthen pots instead of kettles, 
sharpened stones having no axes or knives. They 
put small stones in a split stick, and a certain bone 
which is above the heel of the elk to serve as an 
awl. They have no firearms, but only bows 
and arrows. To make fire they take two little 
sticks, one of cedar and the other of a harder 

* Nouv. Voyage, (Voy. au. Nord v. p. 319.) 



326 THE MANNERS 

wood and by rubbing them between the two 
palms of their hands, the hardest on the weakest, 
a hole is made in the cedar, from which a dust 
falls which is converted into fire. When they 
wish to make a platter, bowl or spoons, they 
trim the wood with their stone hatchets. They 
hollow it with live coals and then scrape them 
with beaver teeth to polish them. As for the 
northern nations, where the winters are long, they 
use raquettes to walk on the snow. 

And those who are near Europeans, have now 
guns, axes, kettles, awls, knives, flints and steels, 
and other utensils like us. To plant their Indian 
corn they make wooden spades, but when they 
can get iron ones, they prefer them to the others. 
They have gourds in which they put their bear, 
wild cat and sun flower oil. There are none of 
the men who have not a little bag to hold their 
pipe and tobacco. The women make bags of 
Indian corn leaves, of linden bark or flags to hold 
their grain. They make thread of nettles, linden 
bark, and a certain other root of which I do not 
know the name. To sew their shoes they 



OF THE INDIANS. 327 

use only babiches or laces. They make mats 
of flags to lie on and when they have none, they 
use bark. They swaddle their children almost 
in the same way as women in Europe ; they tie 
them to a board, in order to take* their kettles, 
some have cranes, those who have not use branches 
of trees."}" 



Manner of burying th(^ Dead* 

They bury their dead with much magnificence, 
especially their kindred. They give them all 
their best finery, and rub their faces with all 
sorts of colors. Then they put them in a coffin, 
whicn they arrange like a kind of mausoleum. 
If it is some child which they can easily put in 
their blanket or on a sled, in presence of all his 
relatives, in order thereby to elicit the presents, 
which are usually made to wipe away their tears. 
They put in the grave with him, all that belonged 

to him, even if it should amount to the value of 

* Prendre, misprint for pendre, hang. 

f Nouv. Voyage, (Voy. au. Nord., v. p. 323.) 



328 THE MANNERS 

two hundred crowns. They put there even his 
shoes, snow shoes, awls, a steel, an axe, belts of 
wampum, a kettle full of sagamity, Indian corn, 
meat and other things of the kind. And if it is 
a man, they put also a gun, powder and balls, 
because they say that when he is in the land of 
the dead or the spirits, he will need all this out 
fit to hunt.* 



Superstitions of the Indians. 

There are some among them more supersti- 
tious than others, especially the old men and 
the women, who adhere stubbornly to the tradi- 
tions of their ancestors, so that when they are 
told that they have no sense, that they ought 
not to cling to such follies, they ask us : " How 
old are you .? You are only thirty or forty 
years old and you pretend to know things better 
than our aged men. Begone, you do not know 
what you are saying. You may know very 

Voyages au Nord., v. p. 325. 



OF THE INDIANS. 329 

well what is going on in your country, be- 
cause your old men have told you, but not what 
occurred in ours before the French came. We 
tell them in reply, that we know all by means of 
writing. These Indians ask : Before you came 
into these lands where we are, did you know that 
we were there. We are obliged to say No. 
Then you do not know every thing by writing, 
and it does not tell you everything.* 

* Nouv. Voyage in Voyages au Nord., v. p, 329. While 
I was among the Issati and Nadouessans an affair occurred 
connected with this matter. An Indian died who had been 
bitten by a rattlesnake, I could not give him soon enough an 
infallible remedy which I always had with me ; that is, orvietan 
in powder. When this accident befel any one in my presence, 
I first made scarifications about the bite and dropped in a little 
of this powder. Then I made the bitten man swallow some 
to prevent the poison reaching his heart. One day these 
Indians wondered at my curing one of their warriors, who had 
been bitten by one of these snakes. They called me a spirit, 
for so they generally style Europeans. " We looked for you 
in the hunting ground where you were with two other spirits, 
who accompany you, but we were so unlucky as not to find 
you. Do not leave us hereafter. We Vv'ill take care of you. 
If you had been with us, our warrior whom you see dead, 
would still be in a condition to give you banquets. He knew 
very well the trade of surprising and killing our enemies. He 
supported his ten wives by his hunting. If you had been with 
25 



330 THE MANNERS 

Ridiculous Beliefs. 

There are many who do not believe what their 
aged men relate, and there are also some who 
do. I have already stated the opinions they en- 
tertain as to their origin, and the cure of their 
sick. They believe in the immortality of the 
soul, and they say that there is a very delicious 
country towards the west, where there is good 
hunting. There you can kill all kinds of animals, 
as much as you wish. It is to this place that the 
souls go, so that they hope to see each other all 

us you would have prevented his dying. You could have done 
so easily, as you have saved the lives of several of our kindred. 
You would not have failed to do this for the one we bewail 
here ?" I admired the neat manner in which they had laid out 
this corpse. They had placed him on very pretty mats, and 
arranged him in the guise of a warrior with his bow and arrows. 
They had painted his body with several colors. One would 
have said, to look at him, that he was still alive. They told 
me that I must give them some Martinique tobacco of which I had 
still a little left, for the deceased to smoke. This gave me 
occasion to answer them that the dead do not smoke or eat in 
the land of souls, and that men have no further need of bows 
and arrows, because there is no hunting in the country where 
souls go ; that if they wished to acknowledge the great chief, 
who is master of heaven and earth, they would there be so 



OF THE INDIANS. 33 I 

together there. But they are more ridiculous in 
saying that the souls of kettles, guns, steels, and 
other arms which they put in the graves of the 
dead, go v^ ith the dead to serve their use there. 
One day a girl having died after baptism, her 
mother saw one of her slaves at the point of 
death. She said : " My daughter is all alone in 
the country of the dead among the French, with- 
out kindred, without friends, and here it is Spring. 
She will have to plant some Indian corn and 

sated with seeing him, that they would not think of hunting or 
of eating and drinking, because the souls have no wants. These 
Indians understood only grossly what I told them. I then pre- 
sented to them two fathoms of our black tobacco. They love 
it passionately. Theirs is not so well prepared nor so strong 
as the Martinique which I gave them. I made them understand 
that I gave it for them to smoke, and not the dead man who 
could do nothing with it. Some of the Indians present, listened 
very attentively ana very seriously to what I told them of the 
other life and seemed very glad to hear me. The others said 
in their language Tepatoui^ that is to say : That is right. For 
all that they smoked to their pleasure, without taking any further 
trouble to profit by my words. I remarked that the tears which 
they shed for the dead and the ceremonies which they practiced 
in regard to him, such as rubbing him with bear's oil, and the 
like, were the result of custom and of an old routine to which 
they are inured by traditions, which seems to have some resem- 
blance to Judaism. 



332 THE MANNERS 

squashes. Baptize my slave that she may also go 
to the country of the French and serve my 
daughter." A woman being at the point of death 
cried out : "I will not be baptized, for the Indians 
who die Christians, are burnt in the country of 
souls by the French." Some say that we baptize 
so that we may have them as slaves in the other 
world. Others ask whether there is good hunt- 
ing in the land to which we wish them to go. 
When we reply that men live there without 
drinking and eating. "Then, I do not wish to 
go there," they say, " because I want to eat." 
If we add that they will not feel any want of 
eating or drinking, they put their hand on their 
mouth, saying : "You are a great liar. Can any 
one live without eating ?" 

A man once related the following to us in 
these terms. One of our old men having died, 
and having gone to the land of sculs, at first found 
French men who welcomed him, and gave him 
good cheer. Then he came to the place where 
the Indians are, who also received him very well. 
There were feasts every day, to which the French 



OF THE INDIANS. 333 

were almost always invited, because there there 
are never any quarrels or wars between them. 
After this old man had seen all these countries he 
came back and related all to his countrymen. 
We asked this Indian whether he believed it. 
He answered no ; that their old men said that, 
but that perhaps they lied. They recognize some 
sort of genius in all things. They all believe in 
a Master of Life, but apply the idea differently. 
Some have a crow which they always carry with 
them, and which they say is the master of their 
life. Some an owl, others a bone, a sea shell or 
some thing else of the kind. When they hear 
an owl hoot, they tremble and draw sinister 
omens from it. They put faith in dreams ; they 
go into their vapor baths in order to obtain fair 
weather to take beaver, to kill animals in the 
hunt. They do not give beaver or otter bones 
to the dogs. I asked the reason ; they answered 
me that there was a spirit in the wood which 
would tell the beavers and otters, and that after 
that they would take no more. I asked them 
what a spirit of this kind was. They replied 



ooj_ THE MANNERS 

that she was a woman who knew every thing, 
and was the mistress of all hunting. It must 
always be remarked that as I have said, most do 
not believe all this. 

About two years ago an Indian woman had 
poisoned herself while on the hunt. The hunters 
had brought her back to her cabin. I went to 
see whether she was dead, I heard them talking 
with each other near the corpse, and say that they 
had seen on the snow the trail of a snake that 
had come out of the woman's mouth, and they 
related this very seriously. While they were 
discussing it, there was a superstitious old woman 
who said: Otkon : it is the spirit who killed her, 
who went that way. 

I have seen a boy seventeen or eighteen years 
old who had dreamed that he was a girl. He 
gave such credit to it, that he believed himself 
to be one. He dressed like the girls and did all 
the same works as women. 

The chief of our village * once said to me ; 

* Evidently that near Fort Frontenac, Nouv. Voy., p. 333 
where he is called " Gannecouse Kaera, that is the Bearded. " 
Bearded, deyagonouskeronda, Onondaga Diet., p. 26. 



OF THE INDIANS. 335 

Onontio, that is to say the Governor General of 
the French, the Count de Frontenac, will arrive 
to day, when the sun is at such a place. In fact 
he arrived at the very hour, of which however 
this old man knew no tidings, and I did not 
know what deduction to draw from this predic- 
tion.* 

The Obstacles to the Conversion of the Indians. 

There are several, both on the part of the 
Indians, and on that of the Dutch, the English 
and the Missionaries. On the part of the Indians 
their first obstacle to the faith is the indifference 
which they feel for everything. When we relate 
to them the history of our Creation, and the 
mysteries of the Christian religion, they tell su 
that we are right, and then they relate their 
fables, and when we reply that what they say, is 
not true, they retort, that they agreed to what 
we said, and that it is not showing sense to in- 
terrupt a man when he is speaking and to tell 
him that helies. "This is all very well," they say, 

* Nouv. Voyage, Voy. au Nord., v. p. 329. 



336 THE MANNERS 

**for your countrymen ; for them it is as you say^ 
but not for us who belong to another nation." 
The second consists in their superstitions. The 
third is that they are not sedentary. The obsta- 
cle to the faith caused by the Dutch and English 
is that they reverse all our maxims and in general 
do before the Indians the very opposite of what 
they say, making no scruple of lying to them at 
every moment from a spirit of lucre. They en- 
deavor maliciously to turn on us the hatred of 
these tribes, in order that they may give no credit 
to the truths which we preach them. 

The obstacle found to the faith on the part of 
the missionaries, is first, the difficulty they have 
in learning the language of the Indians. The 
second consists in the different opinions concern- 
ing the method of instructing them and teaching 
them the catechism. The third obstacle which 
might also hinder the progress of the faith, would 
be the temporal traffic, which would render the 
missionaries suspected by the Indians, when they 
wish to carry it on against the laws of the church.* 

* Nouv. Voy. (Voy. au Nord., v. p. 333.) 



OF THE INDIANS. 



Indifference of the Indians. 



337 



They have so great an indifference for all things, 
that there is nothing like it under heaven. They 
take great complacency in hearing all that is said 
to them seriously, and in all that they are made 
to do. If we say to them : " Pray to God, 
brother, with me," they pray and they repeat 
word for word all the prayers you teach them. 
" Kneel down," they kneel. " Take off your 
hat," they take it off. " Be silent," they cease 
to speak. *' Do not smoke," they stop smoking. 
If one says to them : " Listen to me," they listen 
calmly. When we give them pictures, a crucifix 
or beads, they use them as adornments, just as if 
they were jewelry, and array themselves in them, 
as though they were wampum. If I should say to 
them : "To-morrow is the day of prayer," they 
say *' Niaova." "See, that is right." If I said 
to them : " Do not get drunk," they answered : 
" There, that is right, I am willing." Yet the 
moment they receive drink from the French or 
Dutch, these latter never refusing them liquor 



338 THE MANNERS 

for furs, they inevitably get drunk. When I 
ask them whether they believe, they say " Yes," 
and almost all the Indian v^^omen whom some 
missionaries have baptized and married to French- 
men according to the rites of the church, leave 
and often change their husbands, because they 
are not subjected to the ordinances of our Chris- 
tian laws, and that they have all liberty to change. 
These tribes must absolutely first be civilized to 
make them embrace Christianity, for so long as 
Christians are not absolutely their masters we 
shall see little success, without a most special 
grace of God, without a miracle which he does 
not work in regard to all nations. These are 
my sentiments, from the experience which I have 
had with our Recollects in America, and the 
simple statement which I have made without in- 
tending to offend any one whatever, being bound 
to write the truth. 

Those who come after us will know in 

time the progress of our new discovery ; since 

this year 1682, they write me from America, 

that the Sieur de la Salle with our Recol- 



OF THE INDIANS. 



339 



lects have been to the mouth of the river 
Colbert, as far as the South Sea. They have 
found the Akansa, Taensa, Keroas and the Ouamats 
civilized tractable nations, who have laws, a king 
who commands as a sovereign, with equitable, 
liberal and settled officers, these nations live on 
the banks of the River Colbert, which is more 
than 800 leagues in length 500 to our knowledge 
which we have acquired by ascending it, and 300 
which the Sieur de la Salle has made descending. 
These last nations live in a country very fertile in 
all kinds of fruits. It is as warm as Italy. The 
corn ripens there in fifty days. The soil bears 
two crops a year. There are found there, palms 
trees, canes, laurels, forests of mulberry trees, a 
quantity of game and wild animals, and other 
like things of which we shall give the public 
some account more amply hereafter. 

I pray God to give his blessing to our new 
discovery of Louisiana, and that the King may 
derive all possible benefit from it. 

END. 



APPROBATIONS 

OF THE 

"DESCRIPTION OF LOUISIANA," 

[Published in the Nouveau Voyage, Utrecht, 1698.] 

I the undersigned, certify that I have read and 
examined a book entitled the " Description of 
Louisiana," newly discovered southwest of New 
France, with the customs of the Indians of the 
same country, composed by the Rev. Father 
Louis Hennepin, Recollect Preacher and Apos- 
tolic Missionary, and that I have observed nothing 
therein contrary to faith and good morals ; but 
that it is full of various reflections and most 
useful marks, as well for laboring in the conver- 
sion of the Indians, as for the good of the state 
and the kingdom. Given at our convent of the 
Recollects of Paris, this 13th of December, 1682. 
Father C^sar^us Harveau, 
Lecturer in theology, Father of the Province, 
and Custos of the Recollects of the Prov- 
ince of St. Denis in France. 



APPROBATIONS. 34 1 

I have read a book entitled the " Description 
of Louisiana, newly discovered southwest of New 
France, with the customs of the Indians of that 
country," in which I have not only found nothing 
but what is conformable to the faith of the 
Catholic, Apostolic and Roman Church, the 
laws of the kingdom and good morals, but which 
moreover gives great light to establish the faith 
of Jesus Christ in that new world, and to extend 
the empire of our Invincible Monarch, over a 
great country abounding in all kinds of goods. 
Given at our convent of the Recollects of St. 
Germain-en-Lave, this 14th of December, 1682, 
and signed. 

Father Innocent Micault, 
" Definitor of the Recollects of the Province 
of St. Denis in France, and Commissary 
General in the Province of the Recollects 
of St. Anthony in Artois. 



APPENDIX. 



ACCOUNT. 

of a 



VOYAGE DOWN THE MISSISSIPPI. 

[From the Nouvellc Decouverte, pp. 2.48.] 

It is here, tliat I desire, tliat all the world know the mystery of this dis- 
covery, which T lutve concealed to the present, so as not to mortify the 
Sieur de la Salle who wished to have alone all the glory and all the most 
secret knowledge of this discovery. It is on this account that he sacrificed 
several i)ersons, whom he exposed, in order to prevent their publishing 
what they had seen and that this should not injure his secret designs. 

It must be avowed, that it is very pleasant and agreeable to repass in 
one's mind the hardships and labors one has undergone. I never think 
but with admiration of the very orreat embarrassment in which I found 
mj'^self at ihe mouth olthe river of the Illinois in the River Meschasipi, 
having only two men with me without provisions, in no condition to de- 
fend ourselves against insults to which we were incessantly exposed, and 
that in the design of ^oing on to an unknown country and among savage 
nations, without feeling a secret joy in my heart to see myself escaped from 
so many dangers and happily returned from a voyage of so much difficulty 
and peril. 

This liver of the Illinois empties into the Meschasipi between the 36 and 
33 degrees of latitude. At least this appears so to me from my observa- 
tion at the time, that I pas.-,ed there, although it is ordinarily put at 38. 
Those who make the voyage hereafter, will have more time than I had 
to take the altitude correctly, because I found myself enveloped by the 
conjuncture of the time in great and vexatious affairs both in regard to 
the Sieur de la Salle, and in regard to these two men whom I had with 
me, and who were to accompany me in my voyage. 



344- VOYAGE TO THE GULF FROM 

I was assured in a manner that could not be doubted, that if I descended 
to the lower part of the river Meschasipi, the Sienr de la Salle would not 
fail to decry me in the mind of my superiors, because I left the route 
northward, which I was to follow, according to his request and according 
to the project which we had formed together. But moreover I saw myseli 
on the eve of dying of Imnger and of not knowing what was to become 
of me, because these two men who accompanied me, openly threatened 
to abandon me during the night, and carry off the canoe with all it 
contained, if I prevented them from descending to the nations who 
live on the lower part of the river. 

Seeing myself then in this strait, I thought that I ought not to hesitate as 
to the course I had to adopt, and that I <mgbt to prefer my own safety to the 
violent passion, which the Sieur de la Salle had to enjoy alone the glory 
of this discovery. Our two men, seeing me then resolved to follow them 
everywhere, promised me entire fidelity. Thus after clasping hands as 
our mutual assurance, we put ourselves on the way to begin our voyage. 

It was on the 8th of March in the year 1680 that we embarked in our 
canoe, afti^r having said our ordinary prayers. In this way we continued 
our customary evening and morning devotions according to the usage 
practiced among us. 

The ice * Avhich was coming down the river at this point, troubled us 
greatly because our bark canoe could not resist it. However we always 
gained some convenient distance to escape among the cakes of ice. Thus 
we arrived after about six leagues way at the river of a nation, who are 
called the Osages and who live towards the Missorites. This river comes 
from the west, and it appeared to us, almost as strong as the river Mes- 
chasipi, on which we then were, and into which it empties. Its waters 
are very much disturbed by the muddy earth it bears down -with it, so 
that you can scarcely drink it. 

The Issati who live up this river Meschasipi, often go to war even 
beyond the place where I then was. These nations, whose language I 
knew, because I had occasion to learn it, during the stay that I afterwards 
made among them, informed me that this river of the Osages and of Messo • 
rites was formed by many others, and^that its source was fouii d by ascending 
ten or twelve days journey to a mountain from which all these streams 
are seen flowing, that then form this river. They added that beyond this 
mountain the sea is seen and great vessels, that these rivers are peopled 
by a great number of villages, in which are found several different nations ; 

* Compare Le Clercq, ii, p. 216. Discovery of the Mississippi, p. 160. 



THE ''nOUVELLE DECOUVERTk" 34.5 

that there are hinds and praines and a great liiint of wild bulls and 
beavers. 

Although this river is very large, the river ou which Ave tiieu were 
did not seem increased by it. It bears in so much mud, that below its 
mouth the w^ater of the great river, the bed of wiiich is also full of mud, 
resembles real slime rather than river Avater. This continues to the sea 
for more than two hundred leagues because Meschasipi meanders in several 
places, and receives seven birge rivers, the water of which is very fine, and 
which are almost as large as Meschasipi. 

We cabined every day ou the islands, at least Avheu Ave could, and dur' 
ing the night we extinguished the fire Avhicb Ave had kindled to cook our 
Indian corn. You can smell iu these countries a fire that is light ed 
according to the change of Avind, as far off as two or three leagues. It is 
in this way that the Indian warriors know the ]>]accs where their enemies 
are, so as to approach them. 

On the 9th the ice which came doAvn from tiie north, began to diminish 
a little. After about six leagues liail, Ave found ou the southern l)auk o 
the river a village Avhich we thought Avas inhabited bj^ the Tamaroa*, vvlio 
had previously pursued us. We found no one there and having- entered 
their cabins avc took some bushels of Indian corn, Avliich Avas a great 
advantage to us on our jouriiey. We durst not strike off from the river 
to hunt for fear of falling into an auibuscade of some savages. We left 
six knives with handles, and somo fathoms of black beads instead of the 
Indian corn which we carried off, in order to make compensation to the 
Indians. 

On the 10th we descended to about thirty-eight or forty leagues from 
the Tamaroa. There we found a river Avhich the Illinois Avariiors had 
previously told us was situated near a nation which they called Oiiade- 
bache.f We saw there only mud and flags, and avc foiuid the shores of 
the river very marshy, so that we had to descend out of sight Avitliout 
finding a place fit to cabin. 

We accordingly remained all day iu this place to boucau a Avild coav, 
that we had killed, while this monstrous beast Avas swimming from laud 
to land. The parts of this coav that w'e could not carry away, because 
our canoe was too small, Ave left there, and contented ourselves with 

*Le Clercq, ii, p. 219. Discovery of the Mississippi, p. 167. 

t Compare F. Zenobe Membre in Le Clercq, ii, p. 219. Discovery of the Mississippi^ 
p. 167. Hennepin knew cnouMli about the country not to make a nation called Ouade 
bache, as is done here. 

26 



34^ 



VOYAGE TO THE GULF FROM 



some which we had smoked like strips of bacou, because we could not 
preserve tins meat in any other way for want of salt. 

We embarked on the 14th loaded with Indian corn and good meat 
which served as ballast, and on which we lived for nearly forty leagues. 
We could scarcely land in consequence of the great quantity of flags and 
mud that we found on both banks of the river. If we had been in a 
sloop, we should have slept on board, because it was very difflcult to land 
on account of the mud, foam and quaking earth. 

On the 15th we found three Indians on our way. They were returning 
from war or hunting. As we were in a condition to resist them, we me* 
hem and this put them to flight. One of them however after taking a 
tew steps returned to us and offered us the calumet of peace which we 
received joyfully. This obliged the others to return to us. We did not 
understand their language. We named two or three different nations to 
them. One of them answered us three times Chikacha or Sikacha,* which, 
was apparentljf the name of his nation. They presented us some peli- 
cans which they had killed with their arrows, and we gave them some of 
our boucanued meat. These people not being able to enter our canoe, 
because it was too small and loaded, kept on their way by land' 
making signs that we would follow them to their village. But at last we 
lost sight of them. 

After sailing down two days, we found many Indians on the west side 
of the river. We had previously heard a dull sound like that of a drum 
and several voices of men, which called out Sasacouest,f which means 
" Halloo ! " or " Who goes there ? " 

As we durst not approach, these Indians sent a periagua or large wooden 
canoe to us. These they make of the trunk of a tree hollowed out by fire 
like little boats or Venetian gondolas. 

We presented the calumet of peace to them and the three Indians, of 
whom we spoke above, intimated to us by their gestures and their words, 
that we must land and go with them to their friends the Akansa. They 
accordingly carried our canoe and the goods of our men very faithfully. 

* This encounter of Chickasaws is in Le Clercq, it, p. 210. Discovery of Mississippi, 
p. 168. 

t Le Clercq, ii, p. 221, Discovery of tile Mississippi, p. 168, has •' We heard on the 
right drums beating and sasacouest made." Sasakwewin, joyful shouting, Baraga's 
Otchipwe Dictionary, p. .364. " Sasacouest, that is to say war cries," Le Clercq, ii, 
p. 235, and in the East, Chichiquois was a word adopted by the Fiench, and is used by 
Membre. Hennepin must have known its meaning and would not have made the 
blunder here committed. 



THE "nOUVELLF, DECOUVERTe" 347 

These people reo-aled us after their fashion with many marks of friendsliip, 
They gave us a cabm to ourselves, beans, Indian meal, and boucanned 
meat. On our side we made them presents of our European goods, for 
which they shewed great esteem. They placed their fingers on their 
mouth to show tliat they admired them and especially our fire arms. 

These Indians are very different from those of the North, who are 
generally of a sad, stern and severe disposition. These are much better 
formed, upright, liberal and very gay. Their young people are so modest, 
that they would not dare to speak before the aged, unless a question is 
put to them. We perceived domestic fowls among these Y)toY>le, poules 
d'inde in great numbers, and tamed wild geese like geese in Europe. Their 
trees already began to show their fruit, hke peaches and other fruits of 
that nature.* 

Our two men began to relish the mode of acting of these people. If 
they had been able to get beaver skins aud furs in exchange for their 
goods, they would have bartered them all and left me among these savages. 
But I made them see that this discovery was of the greater importance 
to them, than the return of their goods, and that so it was not yet time to 
think of trade. I accordingly advised them to look out for a suitable 
place to hide all the goods which they had brought with us in the canoe, 
till their return. They embraced mj^ views, and we hud no thought ex- 
cept how to carry out this plan. 

On the 18th after several dances and feasts by our hosts, we embarked 
with all our equipage a little after noon. These Indians could not with- 
out regret see us carry off our goods. However in as much as they had 
received our peace calumet and had given us another, they allowed us to 
go with full liberty. 

Descending the river we found a spot between two hills, which had a 
little wood on the east. We had a spade and a pick, which we used to 
dig a hole. We enclosed in it all our men's goods, reserving for ourselves 
only the most necessary, and what was suitable to make presents. After 
which we placed pieces of wood over this little cellar, which we covered 
with sods, so that nothing could be observed. We gathered all the earth 
which we had taken out and threw it into the river. 

We re-embarked very promptly after completing this task, and we look 
ofl bark from three oaks and on a large cotton wood we made a figure of 
four crosses in order to recognize the place of our cache. We then 
arrived at (a spot) six leagues from the Akansa whom we had left, and 

* This iB from Le Clercq ii, p. 224. Discovery of the Miss., p. 169. 



3+8 



VOYAGE TO THE GULF FROM 



there fouucl another village of the same nation, and then another of the 
same, two or three leagues lower down * 

It seemed that these savages had sent messengers to all these nations to 
notify them of our arrival. These people gave us the best reception in 
the world. Their women, their children and the whole village gave us 
loud acclamations, and showed every possible mark of joy. We gave 
them on our side marks of our gratitude by bestowing presents on them, 
which showed that we had come iu peace and friendship. 

On the 31st this nation took us in a periagua to a nation further on, 
whose name they made us learn by dint ot repeating it to us. They were 
the Taensa. They accordingly conducted us to that place. These Indians 
live near a little lake, which th<j river Meschasipi forms in the land. 
Time did not permit us to consider several of their villages, by which we 
passed. 

These people received us with much more ceremony than the Akansa. 
One of their chiefs came in state to meet us on the bank of the river. 
He was covered with a white robe or blanket, made of the bark of a tree 
which they spin in that country. Two of his men preceded him with a 
kind of blade or plate of copper which glittered in the sun like gold. 
They received our peace calumet with great marks of joy. Their chief 
held himself gravely iu his posture, and all the men, women and children 
there rendered very great respect to him as well as to me.f They kissed 
the sleeves of ray F'ranciscan habit, which I have always worn among all 
the nations of America. This made me understand that these tribes had 
doubtless seen some of our religious among the Spaniards, who live in New 
Mexico, because they are accustomed to kiss the habit of our order, but 
all this is merely conjecture. 

These Taensa conducted us with all our equipage, while two of their 
men carried our bark canoe on their back. They placed us in a fine 
cabin, covered with mats of flat rushes, or polished canes. The chief 
regaled us with all that this nation could give us to eat, after which they 
performed a kind of dance, the men and the women holding their arms in- 
terlaced. As soon as the men had finished the last syllable of their songs, 
the women who are halt covered in that country, sang alternately in a 
sharp and disagreealjle voice that pierced our ears. 

This country is full of palm trees, wild laurel and several other trees, 
which are like ours iu Europe, as plum trees, mulberries, peach, pear and 

* Le Clercq ii, p. -26. Discoverj of the Mies., p. 170. 

t This account of the Taensas ia from Le Clercq, ii, p. 226-7. Discovery of the Miss, 
pp. 170-1. 



THE ^'nOUVELLE D£COUVERTe" 349 

apple trees of all Muds. There are five or six kinds of walnut trees, the 
nuts of which are of extraordinary size. They have also several dry 
fruits, which are very large and which we found very good. There are 
also several fruit trees which we have not in Europe. But the season 
was not then far enough advanced to observe the fruit. We saw vines 
there which were ready to blossom. In a word the mind and disposition 
of this people seemed to us very agreeable. They are docile, tractable 
and capable of reason. 

We slept among this nation and there received every good treatment 
that we could desire. I made our men put on their best clothes, and they 
armed themselves from head to foot. I showed them a pistol which fired 
four consecutive shots. The habit of St. Francis, which I then wore with 
the white girdle over it, was still almost all new, when I started from 
Fort CreveccEur. These Indians admired our sandals and our bare feet. 
All this as well as our manner of acting, attracted ahke the affection and 
respect of these people and impressed such fovorable sentiments for us on 
their minds, that they did not know what courtesies to show us. 

They would have* much wished to detain us among them, in order 
even to give us stronger marks of their esteem, they sent during the night 
to inform their allies the Koroa of our arrival among them. For this 
object the chiefs and headmen among them came to see us the next day 
to testify to us the j 03' they felt at our coming among their friends. I had 
a white wood tree hewn square by our two men, and then we made a 
cross which we planted twelve feet from the house or great cabin where 
we were lodged. 

On the 22d, we left this nation and the chief of the Koroa accompanied 
us to his village. It stands ten leagues lower down in a very agreeable 
country. On one side there you see Indian corn, and beautiful prairies on 
the other. We presented to them three axes, six knives, four fathoms of 
Martinique tobacco, some awls and little packages of needles. They re- 
ceived them with great acclamations of joy. This chief presented to us a 
peace calumet of red marble, the stem of which was trimmed with feathers 
of four or five different kinds of birds. 

During the banquet which this chief gave us, he showed us with a stick, 
by which he made various marks on the sand, that it was still six or seven 
days sail to the sea, which he represented to us as a great lake, where great 
wooden canoes were to be seen. 

* This is gaid of theNachie (Natchez) in Le Olercq. ii p. 23J. Discovery of the Mies., p 
173, who were e-emies of the Taensap, but who are entirely omitted here. 



350 VOYAGE TO THE GULF FROM 

On the 2od, Ibis chief of the Koroii seeing lis disposed to set out to goto 
the sea, he niad-e several of his men embark in two periaguas to descend 
the river with us. He had made them take provisions with them, and 
this prevented onr feeling any distrust. 

But when I perceived the llirec Chikacha, whom I have mentioned 
who followed ns among all the nations where we went, T warned onr 
men to beware of them and to see that they did not lie in ambush to sur- 
prise us at our landings. We were then at Easter day, but we could not 
say mass, for want of wine, which had failed us at Fort Crevecoeur, We 
accordingly withdrew apart from these people, who ahvays kept tbeir 
eyes on us, in order to say our prayers and fulfil the obligation of true 
Christians on that solemn day, I exhorted our men to confidence in 
God, after which we embarked in the sight of Ihe whole village. 

The three Chikacha entered the periaguas of the Koroas who escorted 
us six leagues below their village. There the river Mescliasipi divides* 
into two channels, which form a great island that seemed to us extremely 
long. It may be about sixty leagues in extent according to the observa- 
tions, that we made as we followed the channel which is on the west 
side. The Koroa obliged us to take it by the signal which they made us. 
The Chikacha wished to make us go by the other channel which is on the 
east. It was perhaps to have the honor of taking us to nine or ten dif- 
ferent nations which are on that side, and who appeared to l^e very good 
people, as we remarked on our return. 

We there lost the Indians who accompanied us because their periaguas 
could not go as fast as our bark canoe, which was lighter than these 
periaguas. The current of this channel being very rapid, we made that 
day according to our judgment thirty-five or forty leagues, and were not 
then at the end of this island of which we have just spoken. We crossed 
the channel, and cabined on this island, leaving it the next day. 

On the 24th after sailing again nearly thirty -five or forty leagues, we per- 
ceived two men fishing on the bank of the river, who took flight. Sometime 
after we heard some war cries and according to all appearances the roll 
of some drum. We afterwards learned that it was the nation of the 
Quinipissa,* and as we were in dread of the Chikacha, we always kept 
the thread of the channel and thus pursued our route with all possible 
diligence. 

* Le Clercq ii p. 234. Discovery of the Mississippi, p. 173. 

+,Le Clercq, ii, p. 235. As the word Sasacouest is there explained to mean war cries, h» 

omitP the Indian word. 



THE "NOUVELLR DECOUVERTE 35I 

We landed very late at a village on the bank of the river. They told 
us afterwards that it was the nation of the Tangibao. There is every 
reason in the world to believe that these last had been surprised by thei"" 
enemies. We found in their cabins ten men killed by arrows. This com- 
pelled us to leave their village promptly and to cross the river always 
advancing on our way to the great channel. We cabined as late as we 
could on the bank of the river, where we promptly built a fire of drift- 
wood which we found at the water's edge. We then cooked our Indian 
corn meal and seasoned it with boncanued meat, after pounding it. 

On the 25th the ten Indians killed by arrows having troubled us all 
night long, we embarked at the first break of day and after a sail that was 
even longer than that of the day before, we arrived at a point where the 
river divides into three channels.* We passed with speed through the 
middle one which was very beautiful and very deep. The water there 
was brackish, or half salt, and three or four leagues further down, we 
found it entirely salt. Pushing on a little further still, we discovered the 
sea, which obliged us first to land on the east of the river Meschasipi. 

Our two men were extremely afraid of being taken by the Spaniards of 
New Mexico, who are west of this river. They were in strange distress, 
and every moment told me, that if unhappily they should happen to fall 
into the hands of t'le Spaniards of this continent, they would never see 
Europe again. I did not tell them all that I thought Our religious have 
twenty-five or thirty provinces in Old and New Mexico. So that even if I 
had been taken, I should only have felt consolation and joy to end my days 
among my brethren in so charming a country as this. I should thus have 
been guaranteed from a world of hazards and all the dangers that I after- 
wards had to encounter. I would even inseusibibly have spent my days 
laboring for my salvation, in a country that may justly be called the delight 
of America ; but the extraordinary trouble of our men made me adopt 
another resolution. 

I do not profess to be a mathematician. However I had learned to take 
altitudes by means of the astrolabe. Monsieur de la Salle was careful 
not to trust me with that instrument while we were together, because he 
wished to reserve to himself the honor of everything. We have however 
subsequently ascertained that this river Meschasipi falls into the Gulf of 
Mexico between the 27th and 28th degree of latitude and as it is believed, 
in the place where nil the maps place the Rio Escondido,f which means, 

* Le Clercq, ii, p. ~36. Discovery of the Mississippi, p. 174. 
1- Le Clercq, ii, p. 238. Discovery of the Mississippi, p. 175. 



3 5-' VOYAGE TO THE GULF FROM 

Hidden river, 'i'iio river Magtlalona in ])et\v( en this river ami the mines 
of Santa Barbara in New Mcxieo. 

Tiiis moiitli ol' tlie Mescliasipl is nljDnl tliiily leat'.ues distant from the 
Rio Bravo, Hixty leaLjiieH from Palmas, 80 to 100 from tbe Rio de Pannco 
on tlic eoasl nearest tlu^ Hpanisli solllemcntrt. According to tliis vvc 
judged by incaiis i>\' llic <()i!ii)a,ss, which has always been very necessary 
to us, durinii our wlioli^ discovery, tliat Espiritn Santo ) ay is nortli- 
easl of this ninnlli. 

Dui'ing all onr ronle li'oni the mouth of the river of the Illinois, which 

enters into JMesehasipi, we almoHt always sailed south, and southwest to 

the sea. This river winds in various places, and is almostalways a league 

wide, ll is v(!ry ileep and lias no sand banks. Nothing interferes with 

navigation, and even ilie largest shi]isn)ighl sail into it without diiriculty. 

It is estimated that- this river runs nioi'e than eight hundred leagues in length 

inland from its source to the sea, counting the bends which it makes as it 

winds ahmg. Its moulii is more than three hundred and forty leagues 

from that of the rivoi- of the Illinois. In fine as we have sailed from one 

end of this river lo Ihr dIIkt on onr way up, we shall describe its source 

hei'eafter. 

Tlie two )ii''u who accompanied nu' IMt great joy, as well as myself, 

at having emlured the fatigue of our voyage. They felt however dis- 
appointed thai they had not ama-ssed fuj'S for the goods wduch we had 
hidden. Moreover they were in constant fear of being taken by the 
Spaniards. They consequently did not give me the time that I would have 
desired to observe the place exactly' where we w(;re. They would never 
help me to build a cabi)i, which we might have covered with diy grass 
from the jjrairies. My design was to \vtiyv a letter there written with my 
own hand and sealed to make it fall into I he hands of the people of the 
country. This obliged me I'or fear of irritating them, to tell them, that 
we would use all possible diligenc;e to asceiul the river northward, where 
they would easily be able to barter their goods. I made tln^ni alwayH 
hope, that I would contribute in eveiy thing to their success. 

All that I could obtain of them before going up the Meschasipi again 
was that they should square a tree of hardwood, of which we made a 
cross about ten or twelve feet high, which we then planted in the earth, 
which fortunately was at that place a firm clay. To this we fastened a letter 
with my name and that of the two men who were with me, with a brief 
account of our rank and the object of our voyage. After which kneeling 
down we chanted some hymns proper for our design, like the Vexilla Regis 
and others and tlien we set out.* 

* Le Clercq, ii, p. 237. 



THF. "nouvf.llr d£co ivf.rtf/ 3 5^ 

Duriiifc the Ktay wliidi wa made at )h<; nioutli of Mesclifisipi, we did 
not perceive a living Bonl. Hence we have not been able to know wlielhe'" 
there are nations ihat dwell on the sea shore. We slept during that time 
only in Ihe open nir, mh diiriii<r all the rest of the voyage, when if did not 
rain. But during the; rain we eovraed oiirHclves with our canoe, which 
we phieed bottom up on four slakes. Then we fastened to it birch barks 
which we imrolled, hanging them lower down than our canoe to shelter 
us from the rain. 

We set out at last on the first of Ay)ril because our provisions 
began to diminish. It is very remarkable thai during all this voyage, 
God haj)pily for us preserved us from the crocodiles which arc found in 
abundance in this river Meschasipi, especially as you approach the sea 
They are much Lo be dreaded, wlien one is not carefully on his guard* 
We husbanded 'nw Indian corn as Avell as we could possibly, because the 
lower river is (txtremely skirled by canes iind landing there is v<iry incon- 
venient. Accordingly we durst not hunt, because that would have made 
us lose too nnicli lime. 

Jfowever our canoe being loaded only willi aliltle provisions and some 
small jjresents drew ordinarily otdy two or three inches of water. By 
this means approaching the land as near as po.ssib]e, we avoided the cur- 
rents and the rapidity of tl)e river. We used such diligence in order to 
avoid being surprised, that we reached tJ)e village of the Tangibao. 
But because Ave liarl nlways borne in mind llirjse dead men pierced with 
arrows whom we had seen in their cabins, on passing there the first 
tmic, we contented ourselves with eating our Indian corn meal steeped 
in water, and we iiad besides that, wild bull tncM boucanned which we 
dipped in bear oil, that we kej)t for this purprjse in bladders, in order to 
swallow more easily this dried meat. After having said our evening 
prayers, we sailed all night with a gjcat piece of tinder or a lighted torch 
to put to flight tlie crocodiles, which miglil be encountered on the route, 
because they are extremely afraid of fire. 

Tiie next day, the 2nd, Michael Ako at daybreak as we advanced on 
our route called our attention to a very great smoke whicli was not very 
far from us, We believed that it wtis Ihe Quinipissa* and some time 
after we perceived four women loaded with wood, who redoubled their 
3t(!ps to roach their village before \\h. But we passed them by dint of 
rowing. I held in my hand the peace calumet which the Indians had 
given us. Our Pieard du Ouay could not restrain himself from firing a 

* Lc Clercq, li, p. SMO. l)'m;ovi:ry of tho MisulBBlppI, p. 176. 



354 VOYAGE TO THE GULF FROM 

charge of bis gun into a flock of wild geese wliicli showed themselves in 
the reeds. These four Indian women having heard the report, threw 
their wood on the ground, and beginning to run with all their might, 
arrived at the village before us and filled all with alarm 

The Indians affrighted at all this, because they had never seen fire- 
arms, began to flee. They thought that it was thunder, not understand. 
ing how it could be done, that a piece of wood and iron which they 
see in the hands of Europeans can belch out fire and go kill people at a 
great distance. Accordingly these savages, though all armed as they 
were in their fashion, did not hesitate to scamper off in great confusion. 
This obliged me to land, and show the peace calumet, which was the 
symbol of our alliance with them. We then ascended into their village 
with them, and they prepared us a repast in their fashion. 

At the same time they notified their neighbors of our arrival. As we 
were engaged in taking our meal in the largest of their apartments, we 
saw several Indians enter in file, who gave us all the hearty welcome 
that they could conceive. Our two men had well nigh remained with 
this nation. Nothing but the goods that we had cached obliged them to 
leave this tribe, and this is also the secret motive which I had in hiding 
them, so that our men should think only of performing our voyage. 
These last Indians having given us as much provisions as we desii-ed, we 
left them after making them some presents. 

We set out on the 4th of April, and made great diligence on our voyage, 
because we had gained strength. We arrived at the Koroa. These 
Indians were not surprised at our arrival as they were the first time. 
They received us in a very extraordinary manner. The^^ carried oiu' 
canoe in triumph on their shoulders. There were twelve or fifteen men 
who marched before us, dancing with bouquets of feathers in their hands. 
All the women of the village followed with the children some of whom 
took hold of my cincture of white wool, which I wore as a Cord of St. 
Francis. Others caught hold of my cloak, or habit. They did the same 
to our two men, and thus they led us to the apartment set apart for us. 
They adorned this place with flag mats, painted two colors, and white 
blankets spun very neatly with the bark of a tree, as we have already re- 
marked. After we had satisfied our hunger with all that these people 
presented to regale us, they left us at liberty to repose in peace and refresh 
ourselves. We were surprised to see in this place that the Indian corn 
which was only two feet from the ground, when we passed the first time 
among this people, was already milky and fit to eat. We learned by the 



THE "nouvelle d£couverte" 355 

iialions near, of their climate, that this corn ripens in sixty clays. We also 
remarked other grain, wliicli -pas already out of the ground, and three 
or four inches high. 

We set out from Koroa the next day, April 5th, and if I could have 
made my men listen to reason, I would certainly have made the acquain- 
tance of several different nations which live on the south side of this river. 
But their only thought was to reach the noithein nations to pick up all the 
furs they could iu exchange for the goods which they had left below the 
Akansa. Greed of gain carried tlie day, and I was constrained to follow 
them, because it was impossible to remain alone among so many nations 
far distant from Europe. I had then to take patience and keej) up a good 
countenance. For all the efforts which I made to persuade them, that 
the public good should be preferred to the advantage of individuals, thej^ 
got the best of me, and I was obliged to yield, being unable to do otherwise. 
We were not able to reach the Taensa, till April 7. 

These Indians liad already received couriers who had notified them of 
our coming. Tliis caused them to summon several of their neighbors 
who lived far inland oa the east, and west, in order to get some of our 
got)ds, if it was possible, because these savages never can weary admiring 
them. They have sent some to several other nations more remote, with 
whom they are allied. 

They used every effort to retain us among them. They olfered us one 
of their best lodges for our use, and calumets of black, red and jaspered 
marble. But our men had their hearts set (m the spot, where they had 
cached their goods, so that they paid no regard to all their offers. They 
then told me that we must absolutely set out. If I had had with me all 
that was necessary, as I had my portable chapel, I should have lemained 
among these good people, who showed me so cordial a friendship. But 
it has long since been said that our companions are often our masters. I 
was then obliged to follow the opinion of our men. 

We embarked on the 8th of April, and some Taensa came to escort us 
in their lightest periaguas, because tliey could not paddle fast enough to 
follow our bark canoe with the others. Even with all the efforts that 
they made with their poles, they could not go fast enough. Thustiiey 
wei'e obliged to leave us, and let us go on, We threw them two fathoms 
of Martinique tobacco to oblige them to remember us, and these Indians 
on leaving us wondered how we could shoot three or four ducks, with a 
single gun shot, which made them utter yells and cries of amazement. 
After our men had saluted them taking off their hats with great respect 



356 



VOYAGE TO THE GULF FROM 



they redoubled their efforts at the paddle to show these savages, that they 
were capable of doing something more than they had yet seen them do. 

On the 9th we arrived at tlie Akansa about two liours after sun rise. 
It seemed to us that after having been received with so much humanity 
by all these nations, which deserve the name of humane rather than bar- 
barous nations, from their wonderful mildness, we had no ground for fear 
or distrust, and that we were in as great security among them, as though 
we had traveled through the cities of Holland, in which there is nothing 
to fear. Yet we were not free from uneasiness, when we came to the 
place where we had cached the goods of our men. The Indians had 
burned the trees on which we had made crosses to recognize the place of 
our cache. At first our two men turned pale from fear that their treasure 
had been swept away from them. They lost no time, and posted in haste 
to the spot in question. 

For my part I remained on the bank of the river to gum over our canoe 
which leaked in several places. The Picard du Guay came in haste to 
seeknre in order to rejoice withme, that they had found the cache ag^ain in 
good condition. He told me with great transports of joy, that all was 
just as we had left it. Meanwhile to i)revent the Akansa who were com- 
ing to us in file, from seeing our men while busy in uncovering their 
goods, I took the peace calumet and stopped them to smoke. It is an in- 
violable law among them to smoke on such an occasion, because if one 
refused he w^ould run the risk of being massacred by the Indians who 
have an extreme veneration for the calumet. 

While I amused the Indians our two men came and look the canoe, 
which I had regummed and they adroitly replaced in it the goods which 
they had taken from their cache, and then thej'- came to get me at the 
place where I was with the Indians. I entertained them by signs marking 
my thoughts on the sand, which I endeavored to make them understand in 
this way. I did not understand a Avord of Iheir language which is en- 
tirely different from that of the nations with whom we had conversed 
before and since this voyage. 

We ascended the river verj^ gaily. We advanced by dint of paddling 
with such celerity that the Akansa who were marching by land, were 
obliged to double tJieir sieps to follow us One among them more alert 
than the rest, ran to the village where we were received with even greater 
marks of joy than they had shown the first time. All this was done on 
their part with a view of profiting by our goods, which pass for great 
riches among these people. 



THE "nOUVELLE DECOUVERTe" 357 

It would be useless to describe all the circumstances of what passed in 
the dances and feasts, which these Indians gave us. Our two men seeing 
that they could not enrich themselves by trading for fui-s with these 
people, because they have never li-aded with Europeans, and do not care 
either for beaver or deer skins, of wliich they do not know the use, pressed 
me to go with all diligence towards the northern nations, where they 
hoped to iind these goods in plcuiy. And in fact the Indians who live 
near the source of the river Meschasipi, were begining to go and trade in 
the direction of Lake Superior, among nations which have intercourse 
with Europeans. We left marks of our friendship with the Akansa by 
some presents which we made them. 

We set out the 1st of April* and for the space of about sixty leagues said 
we found no Chikacha or Messorite Indian. Apparently they were all at 
the hunt with their families, or perhaps they were in flight for the fear 
which they had of the Nation of the prairies, who are called Tintonha be 
the inhabitants of these countries. These are their sworn enemies. 

We were only the more happy during our route, because we found 
plenty of game everywhere. However before reaching the place where 
the river of the Illinois empties into the said river, we found a band of 
Messorite Indians, who were coming from up the river. But as they had no 
periaguas to come to us, we crossed to the other bank on the east side and 
or fear of being surprised during the night, we did not step at any place. 
We accordingly contented ourselves with eating roast Indian corn meat 
and boucanned meat, because we durst not make a fire for fear of being- 
discovered by some ambuscade of Indians, who would undoubtedly have 
massacred us, taking us for enemies before they could recognize us 
This precaution made us happily avoid the danger, which but for that we 
should have run. 

I had forgotten, while I sailed on the river I'lleschasipi to relate what the 
Illinois had often told us, and wliich we took for tales invented to amuse. 
It is that about near the| spot called on the map Cap de St. Autoine, very 
near the nation of the Messorites, Tritons and Sea monsters are to be seen 
painted, which tiie boldest men dare not look at, because there is an en- 
chantment and something supernatural there. These pretended friglitful 
monsters are after all only a horse very badly painted with matachia of 
red color, and some deer daubed by the Indians, who add that they can- 
not be reached. But if we had not been pressed to avoid being surprised 
by the Indians, it would have been easy for us to touch them, for the said 
Cape of St. Anthony is not so steep or so high as the chain of mountains, 
* The last date was the 9th. 



358 



VOYAGE TO THE GULF FROM 



•which are along side the falls of St. Anthony of Padua, wbich is near the 
source of the Meschasipi. These savages added, moreover, that the rock 
where these monsters were painted, was so steep that passers by could not 
go there. And in fact the common tradition among these nations is, that 
there were formerly several Miamis drowned in this place* on the river 
Meschasipi, because they were vigorously pursued by the Matsigamea. 
From that time the Indians, who pass by that place, are accustomed to 
gmoke and present tobacco to these puppets, which are very rudely painted, 
and this, they say, to appease the Manitou, which according to the language 
of the Algonquins and of Acadie, signifies an evil spirit, which the Iroquois 
call Otkon, which is a kind of sorcery and wicked spirit, whose malignity 
they ignore. 

While I was at Quebec I was told that the Sieur Jolliet had formerly 
been on this river Meschasipi and that he had been obliged to return to 
Canada, because he had not been able to pass beyond these monsters, 
partly because he had been terrified by them, and partly too because he 
feared he might be taken by the Spaniards. But I must say here, that 
I have very often sailed in a canoe with the said Sieur Jolliet on the river 
St. Laurence, and even in very dangerous times on account of the high 
winds, from which however we fortunately escaped to the great astonish, 
ment of all the world, because he was a very good canoeman. I there 
had occasion to ask him many a time, whether in fact he liad been as far 
as the Akansa. 

This man who had great consideration for the Jesuits who were by nation 
Normans, (because his father was from Normandy), avowed to me that he 
had often heard these monsters spoken of among theOuttaoiiats, but that 
he had never been as far as that, and that he had remained among the 
Hurons and the Outtaoiiats to trade in beaver and other peltries. But 
that these people had often told him that this river could not be descended 
on account of the Spaniards, whom thej'^ had made him dread extremely. 
I have given great credit to this statement of the Sienr Jolliet,* because 
in fact during our whole route on the river Meschasipi, we found no mark, 
that could shew us that the Spaniards are in the habit of sailing on it, 
as we shall show in our second volume. 

When one arrives at 20 or 30 leagues below the Maroa, the banks of 
this river Meschasipi are full of canes to the sea." 

* As no fact is better establislied than the voyage of Marquette and Jolliet, this asser- 
tion that Jolliet disavowed it, would have to come from undoubted authority to be 
credited. 



the"nouvelle d£couverte" 359 

[Here follow general observations on the river, the prairies, forests, 

animals, trees, mines, Indian manners, prosjiects for missions, pp. 295-310.] 

" Rutin order not to wearj' the vader, it is time to pursue our voya2;e 1o 

the source of the river Meschasipi. We embarked on the 24th of April 

and the Indian corn or large millet failing us as well as the boucanned 

meat, we had no other means of sulisistence than hunting or fishing. 

Deer were verj^ scarce in the parts where we then were, because the 

Illinois often come there and ruin the hunting. Fortunately we found 

some long beaked sturgeons, of which I shall speak hereafter. We killed 

them with blows of our hatchets or swords fixed in l);mdles which we 

used on the occasion, in order to save our powder and lead. It was then 

the time when these fish spawn, and they are usually seen approaching 

the shore of the river in order to spawn. We accordingly easily killed 

th(m with blows of axe or sword, without going into the water and 

because we killed as many as we wished, we took only the belly and the 

most delicate morsels, and left the rest. 

If our men had some pleasure in this abundant fishery, they were 
on the other hand in great fear of the people whom we had left at the 
fort of the Illinois or Crevecceur. Although we were still more than a 
hundred leagues distant, which is a trifle, on account of the great speed 
that is made with bark canoes, they feared lest some of the peoj)le from 
the fort should come, and seeing that they had not barteied their goods 
with the northern nations, might seize their effects. I proposed to them 
to sail by night and to cabin bj'' day on the islands with which the river 
is filled, and which we might find on our way. 

The river is all full of these islands, especially from the mouth of the 
river of the Illinois to the falls of St. Anthony of Padua of which I shall 
speak hereafter. This expedient succeeded, and in fact after having sailed 
during the whole night, we found ourselves far enough from this mouth 
approaching the north. On the whole the land did not seem to us so 
fertile nor the woods so fine, as those which we had seen in the countries 
which are on the lower part ot the river Meschasipi." 



360 



ACCOUNT FROM MARGRY. 

ACCOUNT 



HENNEPIN AND THE SIOUX. 

[From Margry 1, p. 481 etc.] 

" They were ascending the river Colbert or Mississippi with gj'eat pleasure 
and without any obstacle when on the lltli of April, 1680, they beheld 
themselves invested by a hundred or hundred and twenty Nadouessious 
whi I descended in thirty-three canoes to make war on the Tcliatchakigouas. 
Father Louis at once presented them the calumet, which liiey received, 
but they would not smoke it, which is a mark of peace, till after they had 
made them cross to the other side of th(; river, whither they pursued them 
with loud cries, to give, according to their custom, some satisfaction to 
their dead. 

Nevertheless these savages plundered them of some goods and although 
Michael Accault made them a present of two boxes of goods, they carried 
them off to their village to which they I'eturned, this encounter having 
made them abandon their voyage. They did not however give the French, 
who were not displeased at this opportunity to continue their discoveries, 
any other ill treatment than to make them march with them afoot from 
the great river for fifty leagues, with great hardship and very little food. 
It is true, nevertheless, that on approaching their village, they divided all 
the goods among them, half by consent, half by force, hut they promised 
at the same time to pay for them ; and the reason of this violence is that 
this band was made up from two different tribes, the more remote of 
which, fearing that the others would retain all the goods, when they got 
to their village, determined to take their share in advance. 

In fact, sometime after they offered a part of the payment to Michael 
Accault, who would not take it until they gave him the value of all the 
goods, and the Sieur de la Salle does not doubt but that these Indians 
gave him complete satisfaction. They also stole Father Louis' chapel, 
e.xcept the chalice which thej^ durst not touch, because seeing it shine, 
they said that it was a spirit that would kill them. 

This treatment made the Father believe that they wished to put him to 
death, because thej^ performed several ceremonies, which they are also 
accustomed to practice, when they intend to burn their enemies, and 
Michael Accault, who then did not understand their language, although 
he knew ^several others, could not converse with these Indians. Never- 
theless they left the Frenchmen at perfect liberty in their village. 

Three months after they went with the Indians on a buffalo hunt along 



ACCOUNT BY LA SALLE. 



361 



the river Colbert, about 150 leagues from their village, where they met 
the Sieur clu Luth, who was going to tlie Nadouessious, under the guid- 
ance of a soldier of the Sieur de La Salle named Faffart, who had deserted 
from Tort Frontenac. They went up again all together to the village of the 
Nadouessious, where they remained about four months, and at last they 
all* returned to Canada by the river Ouisconsing and by the Bay of the 
Puans. 

Duriug the stay of Father Louis and the two Frenchman among the 
Nadouessious, they saw Indians come as ambassadors, who lived nearly 
500 leagues to the westward, and they ascertained that the Assinipoualac, 
Avho are seven or eight days journey from the Sioux to the northwest 
ward, and all the other nations, who are known to the west and north. 
west live in immense prairies, where there arc quantities of wild cattle 
and peltr}^ and where they are sometimes forced to make fire with 
buffalo dung, for want of wood. '' 



ACCOUNT 

OF 

HENNEPIN'S EXPLORATION IN LA SALLE'S 
LETTER OF AUGUST 22, 1862, 

[From Margry, ii, p. 245.] 

The river Colbert, called by the Iroquois Gastacha, by the Outaouas 
Mississipy, into which the river of the Illinois, called Teakiki, empties 
flows from the northwest. I caused it to be ascended by a canoe, con- 
ducted by two of my men, one named Michael Accault, and the other 
Picard, whom the Rev. Father Louis Hennepin joined, not to lose the 
opportunity of preaching the gospel to the nations that dwell above, and 
who had never yet heard it spoken of. They started from Fort Crevecoeur 
on the 28th of February in the evening, with a peace calumet which is a 
safeguard that the Indians of these parts rarely violate. The said 
Michael Accault, was tolerably versed in their languages and manners. 
He knew all their customs and was esteemed by several of these nations 
among whom I liad already sent him, where he succeeded completely. 
He is moreover piudent, brave and cool. They had about a thousand 
livres worth of the goods most esteemed in these parts, which accom- 

* Accault did not return. 

27 



362 



ACCOUNT OF HENNEPIN 



panied by the peace calumet are never refused by these kind of 
people who need everything. They first met a number of Islinois ascend" 
ing then' river to reach their village, who used every effort to induce them 
to turn back. Michael Accault who deemed his honor pledged to carry 
out the enterprise, animated by the example of Father Louis Hennepin 
who also desired to signalize his zeal, and also wishing to keep the promise 
he had made me to perish or succeed, encouraged his comrade, who was 
wavering at the words of the Indians, and made him see that the object of 
the Islinois was to gel hold of their goods and deprive their neighbors of 
them, and that this should not change the resolution which they had taken. 
In fact they continued their w^ay along the river Theakiki till the 7th of 
March, 1680, when two leagues from its mouth, by which it empties into 
the Colbert, they met a nation called Tamaroa or Maroa, to the number of 
two hundred families or thereabout, who wished to take them to their 
village, which then lay on the west side of the Great river, six or seven 
leagues below the mouth of the Theakiki. They refused to follow them 
and arrived the same day at the confluence of these two rivers, about fifty 
leagues distant from Fort Crevecoeur, and ninety from the village of the 
Islinois. The river Teakiki is almost always of uniform width during 
these ninety leagues, approaching the width of the Seine before Paris, that 
is where it is confined to its bed ; but in various place, as at Pimiteoui, 
one league east of Crevecoeur and at two or three other points lower 
down, it widens out to a league or two, and in many places where the 
two high grounds, which skirt it from the Islinois village down, recede 
for about a half a league from each other, tlie ground which tliey leave 
between them is marshy and often overflowed, especially after the rains 
which easily cause these rivers to leave their channels, and swell them to 

*This extract is given, as it was written at Fort Frontenac in 1682, wliile Hennepin 
was in France preparing his book for publication, and must have been based on reports 
from Hennepin or Accault. It recognizes Hennepin's discovery and maintains his 
priority over Du Lhut, but like the Margry Relation tries to show that the party 
were not prisoners. Yet all the statements are based on information derived from 
Hennepin, there being proof that he wrote to La Salle, and no evidence that Accault 
did or could wrfte. Yet the priority of exploration of the Sioux country belouu;s to 
neither. The Jesuits in their Relation of 1640 speak of the Nndouesis as known. Raym- 
bault and Jogues (Relation 1642) indicate the route to their country by way of Lake 
Superior and St. Louis river. During the winter of 1659-60 de Groseilliers and another 
Frenchman visited their country and its forty villages. Rcl. 1660 : Journal des 
Jesuites, p. 287 ; Charlevoix, Hist. New France, 3 p., 48 n. See also pp. 330-1. Hen- 
nepin curiously enough professes to have known this pioneer explorer of Dakota land. 
Voy. au Nord, v, p. 849. 



FROM LA SALLE'S LETTER. 363 

an extraordinary degree, and often more than a pike high.* The Islinois 
river from their village to the Great river has a very deep and even bed. 
It is skirted by woods almost all the way, all the marshes producing very 
large trees of all kinds, and tlie slope of the hills is usually covered ; but once 
you cross the lands overflowed by the river from time to time, and ascend 
the hills, you find nothing but beautiful plains further than the eye can 
reach, dotted here and their with tufts of wood, which seem to be there 
only because needed. These clearings f extend in many places to the river 
shore, especially near the village, aud about sixty leagues east and north- 
east, where woods are very rarely seen along the bank, which is more 
uniformly skirted by woods as you descend. The current is scarcely per- 
ceptible when there have been no heavy rains, except in spring, it is very 
navigable however at all times for the largest barks up to the Islinois In- 
dians, and above only for canoes, both on account of the rapidity of the 
water, and the small quantity at several places where the rapid slope and 
the bars prevent any depth. 

The ice w^hich came down the Great river stopped them at the mouth 
of the Islinois till the 12th of March. On the south side it washes a steep 
rock about forty feet high adapted for building a fort, aud on the other 
side it waters a beautiful prairie, of w^hich the end cannot be discerned, 
very suitable for cultivation. This place seems to me the most suitable 
of all to settle, for many reasons which I have not time to deduce here, 
and I shall be able to make a post there as I return from my voyage. 

From there to Pimiteoui the river runs almost south, so that its mouth 
is between 46° and 47° north latitude, and about 130 or 130 leagues from 
the north shore of the Gulf of Mexico. From Quebec to Montreal there 
is about 43 leagues difference east and west; from Montreal to Fort 
Frontenac 61 leagues ; from the fort to Niagara, 65 ; from Niagara to the 
end of Lake Eiie 123 ; from there to the mouth of the river of the Miamis 
117 • thence to the Islinois 53 ; thence to Pimiteoui or Crevecoeur 27; from 
Crevecojur to Mississipi 18, which makes about 500 leagues, equal to 
about 24° of longitude. The Mississipi, going down, appears on leaving 
the Teatiki, to run south southwest, and ascending north northwest; it 
runs between two chains of pretty high mountains, much higher than 
Mont Valerieu, which wmd like the river, from which they sometimes 
recede a little, leaving moderate prairies between them and its bed, and 
sometimes they are bathed by the waters of the river, so that while on oqe 

*The pike was 13 feet long. 

t Deserts still ased in Canada this sense. 



3^4 



ACCOUNT OF HENNEPIN 



side it is bordered by the spur of a mountain, it forms on the other a bay, 
■the end of which is met by a prairie or a woody plateau. The slope of 
these hills, which are either of gravel or stone is covered fi'om time to 
time with dwarf oaks or in other places with very small plants. The top of 
the mountains leveals plains of very poor land, very different from that 
among the Islinois, but which is pastured by the same animals. The 
channel of this great river, almost every where one or two leagues wide, 
is dotted all along by a number of islands covered with open Avoods, in- 
terlaced by so many vines that they can be traversed onlj^ with diflBculty_ 
They * are subject to inundation in the freshets. They ordinarily con- 
ceal the sight of the other bank, which is only rarely discerned, on 
acc(mnt of these islands. The bottom is very unequal as you ascend above 
the river ol the Islinois. You often meet shoals which traverse the 
channel from one side to the other, over which canoes find it difficult to 
pass. It is true that when the waters are high, it is every where deep 
enough for the largest vessels to pass, but the currents are then extremely 
impetuous and difficult to stem with sails. The Mississipi receives no 
considerable rivers on the west side from the river of the Islinois to the 
country of the Nadouesioux, except that of the Otoutantas Paote and 
Maskoutens, Nadouesioux on the east side, and about one hundred leagues 
from Teakiki. 

By following the windings of the Mississipi j'ou find the river Ouiscon- 
sing, Misconsinff, or Meschetz Odeba,f which comes from between the 
Bay of the Puans and the Great Kiver. It flows at first from nortli to 
south till about 45° u. latitude, and then turns west and west southwest, 
and after a course of sixty leagues falls into the Mississipi. It is almost 
as large as that of the Islinois, navigable to this elbow, and perhaps above, 
where the portage of canoes is made, across an oak swamp :j; and a 
drowned prairie to reach the river Kakaling which falls into the Bay of 
the Puans. Misconsing flows between two hills which recede from time 
to time and leave between them and the river pretty large prairies and 
open ground sandy and not very fertile. At other places the plateau 
which is between these hills and the river is in spots lower and marsh}', 
and then it is covered with wood and inundated in the overflow of the 
river. The mountains diminish insensibly in proportion as j'ou ascend 
the river, and at last about three leagues from the portage, the ground 
becomes flat and is marshy, uncovered on the portage side, and covered 

* Down to " sails " not in Hennepin, 
t Not in Hennepin. 
X ChaiBn6e. 



FROM LA SALLE'S LETTER. 365 

with pines on the other. The place where the canoes are transported is 
marked by a tree, where there are two * grossly painted by the Indians 
whence after having marched about half a league, you find the river 
Kakaling, which is only a stream that rises in the marshes, where it 
meanders extremely and forms little lakes, often widening and narrowing 
You follow it about forty leagues, following the turns which it makes, 
then you come to the village of the Outagamis. Haifa league from the 
river on the north side before arriving there, the river falls into a lake 
■which may be eight leagues long and three leagues wide, and after having 
passed the village about two leagues, you find the rapids called Kakaling, 
difficult to descend on account of the rapidity of the water, the quantity 
of rocks found there, and three falls where the canoe and its load must be 
carried. They last six leagues, and three leagues lower down, and at the 
mouth of this river in the Bay of the Puans, is a house of the Jesuits, who 
have truly the key of the country of Castorie,f where a brother blacksmith, 
whom they have and two companions convert more iron into beaver than 
the Fathers do Indians into Christians.:]: 

At about 23 or 24 leagues north or northwest of the mouth of the 
Ouisconsing, which has also a rock on the south side and a beautiful 
prairie on the north side, near three beautiful basins or bays of still 
water, 3^ou find Black River, called by the Nadouesioux Chabadeba, by 
no means large, the mouth of which is lined by alders on both sides. 
Ascending about thirtj- leagues almost always towards the same point of 
the compass, you meet Buffalo river as wide at its Drouth as the Islinois. 
It is called by this uanie on account of the number of these animals found 
there ; it has been followed ten or twelve leagues, where it is always 
even and free from rapids, lined by mountains, which recede from time 
to time to torm prairies. There are several islands at its mouth, which is 
lined by woods on both sides. Thirty-eight or loity leagues above, you 
find the river by which the Sieur Du Luth descended to the Mississippi. 
He had been for three years contrary to orders on Lake Superior with a 
band of twenty coureurs de hois ; he had carried it boldly there, announc- 
ing eveiywhere tiiat at the head of these braves he did not fear the Grand 
Prevost and that he would compel them by force to grant him an 
amnesty. The coureurs de bois, whom he was the first to induce to raise 
the mask have been aild have returned to the settlements several times, 
* Not in Ilennepin. 
t Beavorland. 

:J: Little of tills is la Ilonuopin ; aud it is somewliat ungenerous in La Salle after the 
Jesuits had given hoepitalitj' to two of liie party, Membre and Hennepin. 



366 



ACCOUNT OF HENNEPIN 



loaded with goods and peltries, of which during that time they drained 
Lake Superior, every avenue of which they besieged, and this year they 
have prevented the Outaouacs from descending to Montreal. 

At that time and while he was on Lake Superior, the Nadouesioux, 
invited by the presents which the late Sieur Randin had made them in 
the name of the Count de Frontenac, and the Sauteurs who are the 
Indians who bring most peltries to Montreal and who dwell on Lake 
Superior, wishing to obey the repeated commands of my said Lord 
Count, negotiated a peace to unite the nation of the Sauteurs to the 
French, and go to trade in the country of the Nadoiiesioux, about sixty 
leagues distant west of Lake Superior. Du Luth to cover his desertion 
took this occasion to give him some color, and passed iiimself off with 
two of his deserters for an envoy of the Count, and entrusted with his 
orders to negotiate this peace, during which liis comrades negotiated 
beaver still better. There were many conferences with the Nadouesioux 
and as he had no interpreters, he debauched one of mine named Faffart, 
then a soldier at Fort Frontenac. At last the Sauteurs having visited 
the Nadouesioux several times and returned, and the Nadouesioux 
the Sauteurs, seeing that there was nothing to fear, and that 
he could increase the number of his beaver, he sent this Falfart by 
land with some Nadouesioux and Sauteurs who were returning together. 
On his return this young man having made him a report of the quantity 
of beaver that he might have in that part, he resolved to endeavor to go 
there himself and led by a Sauteur and a Nadouesioux and four French- 
men, they ascended the river Nemitsakouat, whence after a short portage 
he descended into this one, where he says that he passed more than 
forty leagues of rapids, and having seen that the Nadouesioux were 
lower down with my people and the Fatiier, who had descended again 
from the village of the Nadouesioux where they had already been, he 
came in search of them.* He mounted again to the village whence they 
descended again all together, ascended by the river Ouisconsing, and 
thence he came down again to Montreal as proudly as he had set out, having 
even insulted the commissaries and the substitute for the Procurator Gene- 
ral, named d'Auteuil, now actually Procurator General. The Count de 
Frontenac had him arrested and held as a prisoner in the castle of Quebec, 
intending to send him to France, on charges made by the lulendant, 
unless the amnesty granted to the coureurs de bois should cause his 
discharge. 

♦ Hennepin m«lces their meeting July 25, 1680. 



FROM LA SALLE'S LETTER. 367 

To know what the said Du Luth is, it is necessary only to iucjuire of 
Mr. Dalera. Nevertheless he pretends to have made an important dis- 
covery, and to ask this coimtrj' as (having) the advantage of the Islinois, 
which is amusing enough that he hopes a reward for his rebellion. In 
the second place there are only three ways to go there, one by Lake 
Superior, the other by the Bay of the Puans, the third by the Islinois and 
the lands of my commission. The two former are suspicious, and it would 
not be necessary to open the third to him to my disadvantage, he having 
incurred no expense, and having gained much without risk, while I have 
undergone great hardships, perils and losses ; and by the Islinois there is 
a circuit of three hundred leagues for him to make. Moreover the country 
of the Nadouesioux is not a country which he has discovered. It has 
been long known, and the Rev. Father Hennepin and Michael Accault 
were there before him. The first one indeed of his fellow-deserters who 
reached it, having been one of my soldiers whom he seduced. Moreover 
this country is uninhabitable, unfit for cultivation, there being nothing but 
marshes full of wild rice on which these nations live, and no benefit can 
be derived from this discovery, whether it is ascribed to my people or to 
Du Luth, because the rivers there are not navigable. But the King having 
granted us trade in buffalo skins, it would be ruined by coming and going 
to the Nadouesioux by any other route than the Lake Superior one, 
through which the Count de Frontenac can send to obtain beaver, accord- 
ing to the power which he has to grant Conges. But if they go by Ouis- 
consing, where they make their buffalo hunt in summer, and where I have 
begun a post,* the commerce will be ruined on which alone I rely from 
the great number of buffalo killed there every year, beyond what can be 
believed. 

Still ascending the Mississippi, twenty f leagues above this river, you 
find the falls which those whom I had sent, and who first reached there, 
have named St. Anthony's. It is thirty or forty feet high, and the river 
is narrower there than elsewhere. There is an island in the middle of 
the fall, and the two banks of the river are no longer skirted by mountains, 
which descend insensibly to that point; but the ground on both sides is 
covered with open woods as we call them, that is to say oaks and other 
hard woods planted far apart, which grow only on poor soil. There are 
also some prairies. Canoes are carried there for about three or four 

* This 18 a positive statement, but is it true ? Where did La Salle begin a settlement 
on the Wisconsin ? 
+ Hennepin says 10 or 12 ; the Relation Margry, p. 480, has SO. 



368 



ACCOUNT OF HENNEPIN 



hundred paces ; and eight leagues above you find on the west side the 
river of the Nadouesionx, narrow at its mouth, and whicli waters a 
wretched land covered with bushes foi' about fifty leagues, at the end of 
which it ends in a lake called the Lake of tlie Issati, which spreads 
into great marshes, in wliich wild rice grows. Towards the mouth of 
this river the Mississipi comes from tlie west, but it has not been 
followed on account of an accident which befel the Rev. Father 
Louis, Michael Accault and his comrade.* The thing took place 
in this way. After having sailed along the Mississipi till tlie 11th 
of April, about three o'clock in the afternoon, paddling along the 
shore on the Illinois side, a band of a hundred Nadouesionx warriors, 
who were coming for the purpose of killing some Tchatchakigoua de- 
scended the same river in thirty-three birch bark canoes. Theref were 
with them two women and one of those wretches who serve as women 
although they are men, whom the Islinois call Ikoueta. They passed 
along and beyond some islands, and several canoes had alreadj'^ descended 
below that of the Frenchmen. Having perceived it, they all gathered, 
and those which had passed, paddling up with all tlieir might, easily 
blocked their way. There was a part on land which invested tliem on 
that side. Michael Accault who was the conductor, had the calumet 
presented to them. They received it and smoked after having made a 
circle on land covered with straw, in which they made the Frenchmen 
sit. Immediately two old men began to bewail the death of those relatives, 
whom they intended to avenge ; and after having taken some tobacco, 
they made our people embark and cross first to the other side of the river. 
They followed them after giving three yells and paddling with all their 
might. On landing Michael Accault made them a present of twenty 
knives and a fathom and a half of tobacco, which they accepted. They 
had already stolen a half pike and some other trifle. Tliej' then marched 
teu days together without showing any mark of discontent or ill will, but 
on the 22d of April, having reached islands where they had killed some 
Maskoutens, they put the two dead men whom they were going to avenge 
and whose bones they carried with them, between Father Louis and 
Michael Accault. It is an equivocal ceremony which is done to friends 
to excite their compassion, and obtain presents to cover them, and to 

* This seems to make them captured above St. Anthony's Falls while Ileanepin says 
that after sailing nineteen days up the river with the Indians they reached a point five 
leagues below the falls. 

t Sentence not in Hennepin. 



FROM LA SALLES LETTER. 369 

slaves who are taken in war to give them to understand that they must 
expect to be treated as the deceased was. Michael Accault unfortunately 
did not understand this nation, and there was not a single slave of the 
other nations whom he understood, which scarcely ever happens, all the 
nations in America having a number of those whose lives they spare in 
order to replace their dead, after having sacrificed a great many to them 
to appease their vengeance. As a result of this, one can make himself 
understood b_y almost all nations, when he knows three or four languages 
of those who go furthest in war, such as the Iroquois, the Islinois, the 
Akansa, the Nadouesioux and Sauleurs.* Accault^understood all these 
except the Nadouesioux,! but there are many among them who have been 
piisoners among the others, or who have come from others and been 
taken in war, but chance willed that not one could be found in that band 
to interpret for the others. It was necessary to give a full box of goods 
and the next day twenty-four axes in trade. When they were eight leagues 
below the falls of St. Anthony, they resolved to go by land to their village 
sixty leagues or thereabout distant from the landing place, not being will 
ing to carry our people's things or take them by water. They also made 
them give the rest of the axes, which they distributed, promising to pay 
for them well at the village, biit two days after they also divided among 
them two boxes of goods, and having quarrelled over the division, as 
well of the goods as of the tobacco, each chief pretending to he master, 
they parted in jealousy, and took the Frenchmen to the village, where 
they promised satisfaction in beaver of which they professed to have a 
large number. 

The_y were well received there and at first feasted Accault who was in 
a dififerent village from that in which the Rev. Father Louis and the 
Picard were, who were also well received, except that some wild young 
fellows having told the Picard to sing, the fear which he felt made him 
commit an act of cowardice, as it is onl}^ slaves who sing on reaching a 
village. Accault who was not there could not prevent it, but they had 
subjected them to no treatment approaching- that given to slaves. They 
were never tied, and payment was at once promised for what the young 
men had taken, because Accault having found some by whom he could 

* Chippewas or Ojibwas, called Snuteura by the French from their living at Sault Stc 
Marie. 

t How Accault could have understood the Akaneas, that is the Arkansas or Quappas •> 
whose langoag'e is a dialect of the Dakota is not clear, nnleps he had been among that 
nation. And If he understood Akansas, he ought to have been able tocomprehend some 
what the Dakota. 



3 70 ACCOUNT OF HENNEPIN 

make himself understood, made them feel the importance of doing so ; and 
two calumets were at once danced and some beaver robes presented to 
begin the payment ; but as there was too little, Accault would not be 
satisfied with it. Six weeks after * having: all returned with the Nadoue- 
sioux hunting towards Ouiscousing, the Rev. Father Louis Hempin and 
Picard resolved to come to the mouth of the river where I had promised 
to send tidings of myself, as I did by six men, whom the Jesuits de- 
bauched, telling Ihem that the Rev. Father Louis and his traveling com- 
panions had been killed. They were allowed to go there alone to show 
that they were not treated as slaves, and that Du Lhut is wrong in boast- 
ing that he delivered them from bondage, inasmuch as on the way and as 
long as they had provisions, the French had the best, although they fasted 
well when the Indians ran out of food. The plundering was caused by 
jealousy only, for as they were from different villages and very few from 
that where the French were to go, they did this to have a share of the 
goods, of which they were afraid they would get nothing, if they once got 
into the village, where tiie French were ; but the old men blamed the 
young greatly and offered and began the satisfaction which the said 
Accault was to receive. So little did they retain the French as slaves 
that they gave to Rev. Father Louis and the Picard, a canoe to come and 
obtain tidings of me. 

All that Du Luth can say is, that having arrived at the place where the 
Father and the two Frenchmen had come hunting from the village 
whither he went for the first time with them, when they returned there, 
he facilitated for them the means of returning more speedily than thev 
would have done, inasmuch as they had dissuaded the men whom I had 
sent from going there ; but we should have gone for them the following 
spring, had we not ascertained their return as we did, during the winter^ 
from some Outagamis among whom they had passed, Accault finding 
himself so little a slave, that he chose to remain till he had received the 
payment promised him. 

Several remarks, I have no doubt, will be made on this voyage. 

1st. That I ought to have sent a man that understood the language. 
To this it is easy to reply, that I did not send Accault to the Nadoue- 
sioux, but to ascend the Great river; that he understood the language of 
those who were nearest, as the Otoutanta, the Aiounouea,f the Kikapou 

♦ Hennepin says in the beginning of July, 1680. 

+ Tlie Ottoes and lowas. These two were Dakota tribes, whose language it is not 
ikely Accault knew. 



FROM LA SALLE'S LETTER. 37 I 

and Maskoutens Nadouesioux, among whom he was to pass first, and 
there get interpreters to proceed further, it being impossible to send one 
who understood all languages. 

It will also be said that in the first voyages, they should not go with so 
many goods, which tempt the j^ouug men when disobedient to iheir 
elders, and leads them to acts which they would not commit, if they saw 
nothing to tempt them. To this I reply that sending to those nations 
with whom we made acquaintance among the Illinois, and by whom 
Accault was liked, because he had spent two winters and one summer 
there, during which time he had seen several of the most important vil" 
lages, by which he was to pass, whom he had gained by little presents 
there was nothing to fear at least probably, there being no likelihood, 
that they were going to encounter a war party of Nadouesioux three 
hundred leagues from that country. In the second place these voyages 
being toilsome, those who undertake them do so only by the hope of 
gain, which caniot be made without goods. In the third place several 
of these Indians having come to the Islinois while we were staying 
there, and having seen the goods which we had, would have felt umbrage 
or jealousy, believing that their going to their country with little, showed 
a want of friendship or some ill design. Finally, wishing to allure them 
to come and buy our goods and to make them relish their use, it required 
a somewhat considerable stock. 

1 have deemed it seasonable to give you a narj'ative of the adventures 
of this canoe, because I have no doubt it will be spoken of, and if you 
desire to confer with Father Louis Hempin, Recollect, who has gone 
back to France, it is necessary to know him somewhat, for he will not 
fail to exaggerate everything; it is his character; and to myself, he has 
written me, as though he had been all ready to be burned, although he 
was not even in danger ; but he believes that it is honorable for him to 
act in this way, and he speaks more in keeping with what he wishes than 
what he knows." * 

* Margry gives this document as an autograpli letter of La Salle signed by him and 
existing in the National Library among the Clairambault papers, and supposes it addressed 
to the Abbe Bernou. It is pretentious in style and but for this positive statement of 
Margry, might well be suspected of being rewritten by Bernou in Paris after interviews 
with Hennepin. 

The following letter of Hennepin to the Abbe Eenaudot, shows that he deemed himself 
ill treated by that gentleman who had apparently thrown doubts on his good faith : 

Monsieur, vous S9ave8 que je vous iii donne la premiere connoissance de nre descou- 



372 TONTY'S ACCOUNT OF 



ACCOUNT 

OF 

HENNEPIN'S EXPEDITION IN THE WORK PUB- 
LISHED IN 1697, AS BY THE CHEVALIER 
TONTY.* 

j»lr. de ]a Salle " cast his eyes on Mr. Dacan to make an exploration of 
the lands which lie along the river Mississipi running northeast. To 
accompany him he selected the Recollect Father Louis with four French- 
men and two Indians, supplied them with arms and necessary munitions, 
and gave them goods to trade with the nations whom they might meet. 

verte amon arrivee et que je vous a}'piis pour Tarbitve des pennes que j'ay essuie depuis 

quati'cans. NeanmoiD.-<je vois que M. I'abbe Bernou n'on a pas use a Dion egard comme 

il le devroit. H connoistra dans le temps et dans reternite la scincerile de mes inten- 

tione et vous, Monsieur, voires un jour que je suis dans tout le respect possible 

Le plus humble et le plus passione de vos serviteurs* 

F. Louis Hennepin, 
Pauvre esclave des barbars. 

Sib : You know that I gave you the first intelligence of our discovery on my trrival 

and that I took you as the arbiter of tl e hardships which I had undergone for four years. 

Nevertheless I see that the Abbe Bernou has not acted in my regard as he should. He 

will know in time and eternity the sincerity of my intentions, and you, Sir, will one day 

see that I am in all possible respect. 

The most humble and devoted of 

Your Servants, 

F. Louis Hbnnkpin, 

Poor Slave of the Savages. 

Margry still possessed with the idea that Bernou who never was in America wrote the 
authentic account of what he never saw, the Upper Mississipi, and that Hennepin who 
actually made the voyage plagiarized an account of what he saw and did from La Salle 
or this clairvoyaut Bernou, thinks Buraou's disconteut legitimate at Henuepin's 
pretending to be able to tell what he saw and did. The manner in which La Salle here, 
and Bernou in the Margry Relation garble Hennepin's account, and deny his being a 
captive is evidently what Hennepin complains of, and his signature shows that this point 
of his h^lavery, was the one in which he insisted that they wronged him. 

There is not a particle of evidence that Accault or Auguelle furnished La Salle any 
information, and Hennepin says they could not write. La Salle admits receiving a letter 
from Hennepin, who is therefore the primary authority. 

* Tonty disavowed this work but it was clearly based on data furnished by him, 
although the editor took the widest liberty. The portion here given is very curious. 
Accault, or with the noble prefix d'Accaulthere written Dacan, instead of Dacau, remained 
n the Sioux country, as already noted, but was subsequently in Illinois (Gravier, Kela- 
ion Illinois, 1693, p. 32) and the information of his and Hennepin's expedition here given 
was evidently derived from Accault. The latter in 1693 married a d.iughter of the Chief 
of the Kaskaskias. We need not say that most of the statements are false. 



HENNEPIN'S VOYAGE. 373 

They embarked on the 28th of February in the year 1680 on the river 
of the Islinois, descended it to the river Mississipi, and pushed their trade 
while ascending this river, until 450 leagues northward, seven leagues 
from its source, striking off from time to time on one side of the river or 
the other, to reconnoitre the various nations who dwell there. 

This river springs from a great fountain on top of a hill, which is skirted 
by a very beauiiful plain in the country of tlie Issati, at 50° n. latitude. 
Four or five leagues from its source, it becomes so swollen by five or six 
rivers that empty into it, that it is capable of bearing boats. The surround- 
ing coimtry is inhabited by manj'" nations, the Hanetons, Issati, Oua, 
Tintonbas, Nadouessaus. Mr. Dacan was very well received by all these 
nations, traded with them, made several slaves, increased his party by 
several Indian volunteers, and two leagues from the source of this great 
river set up the King's arms on the trunk of a great tree in sight of all 
these nations, who recognized them as that of their prince and sovereign 
master. He also founded several settlements there, one among the Issati, 
wheie several Europeans who had joined him in his course, wished to 
take up their residence ; another among the Hanetons ; another among 
the Oua, and finally another among the Tintonhas or Eiver men. 

Charmed with the docility of these tribes, and moreover attracted by 
the great trade in peltries, he advanced inland to the lake of the Asseni- 
poits. It is, a lake mere than thirty leagues in circuit. Fierce as this 
nation is it received him very humanely. He founded there a post lor the 
French and another among the Chongaskabes or Nation of the Strong' 
tlieir neiurhbors." 



374 MEMOIR OF 



MEMOIR 



SIEUR DANIEL GREYSOLON DU LUTH ON THE 
DISCOVERY OF THE COUNTRY OF THE 
NADOUfiCIOUX IN CANADA OF 
WHICH HE GIVES A VERY DETAIL- 
ED RELATION, 1685. 

[Archives of the Ministry of the Marine.] 
To MonseigneiLr the Marquis de Seignelay. 

MON SEIGNEUR, 

After having made two voyages from here to New France, where al] 
the people there were there, did not believe it possible to discover the 
counlry of the Nadouecioux, nor have any trade with them, both on ac- 
count of their remotenecs, which is more than 800 leagues from our settle 
ments, and because they were generally at war with all kinds of nations^ 

This difficulty made me form the resolution to go among them, a project 
which I could not then carry out, my aflFairs having compelled me to return 
to this country, whereafter having made the campaign of Franche Comte 
and the battle of Senef, where I had the honor of being a gendarme in his 
Majesty's guard, and squire of the Marquis de Lassay, our ensign, I set out 
to return to Quebec, where I had no sooner arrived, than the|desire which I 
had already had to carry out this design increased, and I began to take steps 
to make myself known to the Indians. Who having assured me of their 
friendship, and in proof thereof given me three slaves, whom I had asked 
from them only to accompany me, I set out from Montreal with them and 
seven Frenchmen on the first of September in the year 1678 to endeavor to 
make the discovery of the Nadouecioux and Assenipoualaks,* who were 

* These names are both Chippewa, and not those used by these tribes themselves 
The Chippewas called the Dakotas, Nadowessi-wag, and Bwan-ag, the Nadouechiouek 
and Poulak of the French. Ouc part of the Dakotas they styled Assini-Bvvanj Stone 
Sioux, Assini meaning stone among Algonquin tribes from Lake Superior to Delaware: 
Bay. Baraga, Otchipwe Diet., pp. 46, 91. This word is our Assiniboin, and with the 
plural Bufiiz the Assinipoualak of the French. 



GREYSOLON DU LHUT. 



375 



unknown to us, and to make them make peace with all the nations around 
Lake Superior, who live under the sway of our invincible monarch. 

I do not think that such a departure could give occasion to any one 
whatever to charge me with having contravened the orders of the King in 
the year 1676, since he merely forbid all his subjects to go into the remote 
forests, there to trade with the Indians. This I have never done, nor have I 
even wished to take any presents from Ihem, although they have repeatedly 
thrown them to me, which I have always refused and left, in order 
that no one might tax me with having carried on any indirect trade. 

On the 2d of July, 1679, I had the honor to plant his majesty's arms in 
the gieat village of the Nadouecioux, called Izatys, where never had a 
Frenchman been, no more than at the Songaskitons and Houetbatons, 
distant six score leagues from the former, where I also planted his 
majesty's arms, in the same year 1679. 

On the 15th of September, having given the Agrenipoulaks as well as 
all the other northern nations a rendezvous at the extremity of Lake 
Superior to induce them to make peace with the Nadouecioux their 
common enemy. They were all there, and I was happy enough to gain 
their esteem and friendship, to unite them together, and in order that the 
peace might be lasting among them, I thought that I could not cement it 
better than by inducing the nations to make reciprocal marriages with each 
other. This I couLl not effect without great expense. The following 
winter I made them hold meetings in the woods, which I attended, in 
order that they might hunt together, give banquets and by this means 
contract a closer friendsliip. 

The presents which it cost me to induce the Indians to go down to 
Montreal, who had been diverted by the Openagaux and Abenakis at the 
instigation of the English and Dutch, who made them believe that the 
plague raged in the French settlements, and that it had spread as far as 
Nipissingue, where most of the Nipissiriniens had died of it, have also 
entailed a greater expense. 

In June, 1680, not being satisfied with having made my discovery by 
land, I took two canoes with an Indian who was my interpreter and four 
Frenchmen, to seek means to make it by water. With this view I entered 
a river which emptiee eight leagues from the extremity of Lake Superior 
on the soutii side, wlierc after having cut some trees and broken about a 
hundred beaver dams, I reached tlie upper waters of the said river, and 
then I made a portage of half a league to reach a lake, the outlet of which 



376 



MEMOIR OF 



fell into a very fine river, wliicb took me down into the Mississipi. Being 
there I learned from eight cabins of Nadouecioux whom I met, that the 
Reverend Father Louis Henpin, llecoUect, now at the convent of St. 
Germain, with two other Frenchmen, had been robbed and carried off as 
slaves for more than 300 leagues by the Nadouecioux themselves. 

This intelligence surprised me so much, that without hesitating, I left 
tv/o Frenchmen with these said eight cabins of Indians, as well as the 
goods which I had to make presents, and took one of the said Indians, to 
whom I made a present to guide me with my interpreter and two French- 
men to where the said Reverend Father Louis was, and as it was a good 
80 leagues I proceeded in canoe two daj^s and two nights, and tlie next 
day at ten o'clock in the morning I found him with about 1000 or 1100 
souls. The want of respect which they showed to the said Reverend 
Father provoked me, and this I showed them, telling them that he was 
my brother, and I had him placed in my canoe to come with me into the 
villages of the said Nadouecioux, whither I took him, and in which, a 
week after our arrival there, I caused a council to be convened, exposing 
the ill treatment which thej' had been guilty of both to the said Reverend 
Father and to the other two Frenchmen who were with him, having 
robbed them and carried them off as slaves,* and even taken the priestly 
vestments of the said reverend Fatlier. I had two calumets which they 
had danced to them, returned to them, on account of the insult which 
they had offered them, being what they hold most in esteem among them 
to appease matters, telling them that I did not take calumets from people, 
who after they had seen me and received my peace presents, and been 
for a year always with Frenchmen, robbed them when they went to 
visit them. 

Each one in the council endeavored to throw the blame from himself, 
but their excuses did not prevent my telling the Reverend Father Louis 
that he would have to come with me towards the Outagamys, as he did, 
showing him that it would be to strike a blow at the French nation in a 
new discovery, to suffer an insult of this nature without manifesting re- 
sentment, although my design was to push on to the sea in a west north- 
westerly direction, which is that which is believed to be the Red Sea (Gulf 
of California), whence the Indians who had gone warring on that side 
gave salt to three Frenchmen whom I had sent exploring, and wlio brought 
me said salt, having reported to me that the Indians had told them, that it 

* Du Lhut an eye witness here declares Hennepin's party to have been held as prisoners 
and thus confirms Hennepin as against La Salle and Bernou. 



GREYSOLON DU LUHT. 377 

■was only twenty days journey from where they were to find the great lake 
of which the waters were worthless to drink. This has made me believe 
that it would not be absolutely difficult to find it, if permission would be 
given to go there. However I preferred to retrace my steps, manifesting 
to them the just hidignation which I felt against them, rather than to 
remain after the violence which they had done to the Reverend Father 
and the other two Frenchmen who were with him, whom I put in my 
canoes and brought them back to Michelimakinak, a mission of the 
Reverend Jesuit Fathers, where whUe wintering together, I learned that 
far from being approved for what I was doing, consuming my property 
and risking my life daily, I was regarded as the chief of a band, although 
I never had more than eight men with me. It was not necessary to tell 
me more to induce me to set out over the ice on the 29th of March in the 
year 1681 with the said Reverend Father and two other Frenchmen, having 
our canoe and provisions dragged along, in order to reach our settlements 
as soon as possible, and to make manifest the uprightness of my conduct, 
having never been in a humor to wish myself withdrawn from the 
obedience which is due to the King's orders. 

I accordingly proceeded to our settlements three months before the 
amnesty, which it has pleased his majesty to grant to his subjects, who 
might have contravened his orders, had arrived, but the Intendant was 
unwilling to hear any request that I might have been able to present to 
him. 

As to the manner in which I lived on my voyage, it would be super- 
fluous for me to expatiate on the subject and to annoy your grace by a 
ong story, being convinced that thirteen original letters of the Reverend — 
Nouvel, Superior of the Outaouais missions, the Reverend Father Enjalran, 
missionary of Saint Francis de Borgias, the Reverend Father Bailloquet, 
missionary of Sainte Marie du Sault, and the Reverend Father Pierson, 
missionary of the Hurons at Saint Ignace, all Jesuits, will suffice on the 
whole to inform your Grace amply and fully." * 

* Harrisse, Notes pour servir a I'histoire, &c., de la Nouvelle P'rance, pp, 177-181. 

" In the last years of the first adminiBtration of Monsieur de Frontenac, the Sicur da 
Lut, a man of ability and experience, opened the way for missionaries and the gospel in 
several different nations, striking north of said Lake (Superior), where he even built a 
fort; he penetrated even to the Lake of the Iseati, called Lake Buade, from the family 
name of Monsieur de Fronteuac, planting the King's arms among several nations to the 
right and left, where missionaries are still doing their best to introduce Christianity," <fcc. , 
Le Clercq, Etablissement, ii, p. 137-8. 

28 



378 



DESCRIPTION OF 



DESCRIPTION OF NIAGARA FALLS. 

[Nouvelle Decouverte, pp. 443-455.] 

"We passed back by the great Fall of Niagara and employed ourselves 
during half a day in contemplating this prodigious cascade. I could not 
conceive, how it could be, that four great lakes the least of which i» 
four hundred leagues in circuit, and which empty into one another, 
"which all come at last massed at this great fall do not inundate this great 
part of America. What is more surprising in this is, that from the mouth 
of Lake Erie to this great fall, the land appears almost all smooth and level. 
You can scarcely perceive that one part is higher than another, and this- 
for the space of six leagues. It is only the surface of the water, the cur- 
rent of which is very rapid, that makes it noticeable. What is still more 
surprising is, that from this great cataract to two leagues lower down pro- 
ceeding towards Lake Ontario or Frontenac, the land appears as level as 
in the part above from Lake Erie to this prodigious fall. 

Our admiration redoubled especially at there being no mountain in sight 
till two good leagues below this cascade. And yet the discharge of so 
much water, coming from these fresh water seas, centres at this spot and 
thus plunges down more than six hundred feet, falling as into an abyss 
which we could not behold without a shudder. The two great sheets of 
water which are on the two sides of the sloping island that is in the middle, 
fall down without noise and without violence, and glide in this manner 
without din ; but when this great mass of water reaches the bottom then 
there is a noise and a roaring greater than thunder. 

Moreover the spray of the water is so great that it forms a kind of 
clouds above this abyss, and these are seen even at the time when the sun 
is shining brightest at midday. No matter how hot it is in the midst of 
summer, they are always seen over the spruces and the tallest trees on 
this sloping island, by means of which the great sheets of water, I have 
mentioned, are formed. 

Many a time did I wish that day that I had persons able to describe 
this great and horrible fall, in order to give a just and circumstantial 
account, capable of satisfying the reader, and enabling him to admire 
this wonder of nature; as fully as it deserves. But here is a description of 
this prodigy of nature, such as I can give it in writing, to enable the 
curious reader to conceive as true an idea as possible." 

" From the issue of Lake Erie to the great fall, is reckoned six leagues, as 
I have said, and this continues the Great river St. Lawrence, which 



NIAGARA FALLS. 379 

issues from all these^lakes already mentioned. It is easy to conceive 
that in this space the river is very rapid, since it is the outlet of this vast 
mass of water, issuing from all these lakes. The land on both sides, east 
and west of this current, seem always level from the said Lake Erie to 
the great fall. The banks are not steep and the water is almost every 
where even with the land. You see indeed that the land below is lower, 
as in fact the waters flow with very great rapidity. This however is 
almost inperceplible during the six leagues mentioned. 

After these six leagues of great rapidity the waters of this river meet a 
sloping island, about half a quarter of an hour long, and about three 
hundred feet wide, as well as can be judged by the eye, because it is im- 
possible to cross over to this island in bark canoes without exposing one- 
self to certain death on account of the violence of the waters. This 
island is covered with cedar and spruce. Yet the surface is not more ele- 
vated than that of the two banks of the river. They seem even level 
down to the two great cascades which compose the great fall. The two 
banks of the channels, which are formed on meeting this island, and 
which flow on either side, all but wash the very surface of the land on 
this island, as well as that on the two banks of the river, on the east and 
west, descending from south to north. But it is to be noted, that at the 
■extremity of the islands, on the side of the great sheets or water falls, 
there is a projecting rock which descends into the great gulf into which these 
waters plunge. Yet this projecting rock is not swept by the two sheets of 
water that fall on either side of it, because the two channels which are 
formed by meeting this island, rush down with extreme rapidity, one on 
the east, the other on the west, from the point of this island, and there the 
great fall is formed. 

So after these two channels flow on either side of the island, they all 
at once come and hurl their waters in two great sheets, which fall com- 
pactly and are thus sustained by the rapidity of their fall without wetting 
this projecting rock. Then it is that they are precipitated into an abyss 
which is below at a depth of more than six hundred feet. 

The waters which flow on the east, do not descend so impetuously as 
those that fall on the west. The sheet flows more gently because this 
projecting rock at the end of the island, rises higher on this side than on 
the west ; and this supports the waters longer that are on that side. But 
this rock leaning more to the west and not sustaining them so long, causes 
them to fall sooner and more precipitately. This arises too from the fact 



38o 



DESCRIPTION OF 



that the land on the western side is lower than that on the east. Hence 
we see that the water of the slieet of water on the west falls in the form 
of a square making a third sheet, less than the two others, which falls 
between the south and north. 

And because there is high ground on the north, which is before these 
two great cascades, there the prodigious gulf is much wider than on the 
east. Yet it must be remarked, that a man can descend from this high 
ground, which is opposite the two last sheets of water, which you find 
west of the great fall, down to the bottom of this frightful abyss. The 
author of this discovery has been there, and has witnessed near at hand 
the fall of the great cascades. There can be seen a considerable distance 
below the sheet of water which falls on the east, so that four carriages 
could drive abreast without getting wet. But because the ground east of 
the descending rock, where the first sheet of water plunges into this gulf, 
is very steep, almost perpendicular in fact, no man can on that side reach 
the spot where the four carriages could pass without getting wet, or can 
pierce this great mass of water which falls towards the gulf. Hence it is 
veiy probable, that it is to this dry part, that the rattle snakes retire 
reaching it by subterranean passages. 

It is at the end then of this sloping island that these two great sheets, 
of water are formed, with the thu-d that I have mentioned, and it is thence 
that they plunge, leaping in a frightful manner into this prodigious gulf, 
more than six hundred feet down, as we have remarked. I have already 
said that the waters falling on the east plunge and descend with less 
violence, and on the other hand, those on the west descend all at once^ 
and form two cascades, one moderate, the other very violent. But finally 
these two last faUs makes a kind of hook or bent form and descend from 
south to north and from west to east. After which they meet the waters 
of the other sheet, which falls on the east, and then it is that they both 
fall, although unequally into this fearful abyss, with all the impetuosity 
that can be imagined in a fall six hundred feet high, forming the finest 
and at the same time the most awful cascade in the world. 

After these waters have thus plunged into this frightful gulf, they 
resume their course and continue the great River St. Lawrence for two 
leagues to the three mountains, on the east side of this river, and to the 
great rock which is on the west and which seems to rise very high out of 
the water three fathoms from the land or thereabouts. The abyss into 
which these waters descend, continues thus for two leagues between two 



NIAGARA FALLS. 



381 



chains of mountains, forming a great rock-lined ravine, on both sides of 
the river. 

It is into this gulf then that all these waters fall with an impetuousity 
that can be imagined in so high a fall, so prodigious, for its horrible mass 
of water. There are formed those thunders, those roarings, those fearful 
bounds and seethings, with that perpetual cloud rising above the cedars 
and spruces, that are seen on the projecting island, already mentioned. 

After the channel reunites below this horrible fall, by the two ranges 
of rocks of which we have spoken, and which is filled by this prodigious 
quantity of water, continually falling there, the River St. Lawrence begins 
again to flow from that place ; but it is with so much violence, and it, 
waters lash the rocks on both sides with such terrible impetuosity, that if 
is impossible to sail there even in a bark canoe, in which however by 
sailing close in shore you can pass the most violent rapids. 

These rocks and this ravine continue for two leagues from the great 
fall to the three mountains and great rock already mentioned. However 
all this diminishes insensibly as you approach the three mountain^, and 
the great rock ; and then the ground begins to be almost even with the 
river and this continues to Lake Frontenac or Ontario. 

When you are near the great fall and cast your eyes down this fearful 
gulf, you are filled with awe, and all who attempt to look steadily at this 
horrible fall get giddy. But at last this ravine diminishes and becomes 
a mere nothing, at the three mountains, the waters of the River St. 
Lawrence begin to flow more gently. This great rapid slackens, thejiver 
almost resuming the level of the land. It is thence navigable to Lake 
Frontenac, across which you sail to reach the new channel formed by its 
discharges. Then you re-enter the River St. Lawrence, which soon after 
forms what is called the Long Fall, a hundred leagues from Niagara. 

I have often heard people talk of the Cataracts of the Nile, which 
deafen those who are near. I do not know whether the Iroquois who 
formerly dwelt near this fall and who lived on deer which the waters of 
this fall dragged with them, and which they hurled down such a prodi 
gious depth, have retired from the neighborhood of this great waterfall 
from fear of losing their hearing, or whether this was induced by the 
danger they were constantly exposed to from rattlesnakes, which are 
found here during the great heats, and which retire to cavities in the 
rocks as far as the mountains two leagues below, where they cannot be 
attacked." 



382 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

BIBLIOGRAPHT OF HENNEPIN.* 

1. THE " DESCRIPTION DE LA LOUISIANE." 
French. 

1. Description | de la | Louisiane, | nouvellement decouverte | au Sud' 
Ouost de la Nouvelle France, | Par ordre du Roy. | Avec la Carte du Pays: 
Les Moeurs \ & la maniere de viwe \ des Sauvages. \ Dedie'e a sa Majeste' | 
Par le R. P. Louis Hennepin, | Missionnaire Recollet & \ Notaire Aposto- 
lique. I Monogram A A | A Paris, | Chez la Veuve Sebastien Hure', 
rue I Saint Jacques, a 1' Image S. Jerome, | pres S. Severin. | — | M. 
DC.LXXXIII. I Avec Privilege dv Roy. | 

12°, pp. (12), 312, Les Moeurs des Sauvages, pp. 107. Map by Guerard. 
Carte | de la | Nouuelle France | et de la | Louisiane | Nouuellement de- 
couuerte | dediee | Au Roy | I'an 1683 | Par le Reuerend Pere | Louis 
Hennepin ] Missionaire Recollect | et Notaire Apostolique. | 

Privilege granted Sept 8, 1682, registered Sept. 10. Printing completed 
Jan. 5, 1683. 

The map carries the Mississippi below the mouth of the Illinois, does 
not indicate the Ohio or Missouri : Pictures a tree with the French 
arms, and marks the spot near Lake Buade, and a church and " Missions 
des Recollects " near the Lake des Assenipoils, evidently to inform readers 
that a church indicated a Recollect mission. 

2. Some copies of this edition with the same privilege and note 
as to printing, have on title, Apostolique, in a line by itself and. 
A Paris, | Chez Amable Auroy, Proche la Fontaine S. Severin, | 
M.DC.LXXXIV. I 

The A A on the title is the monogram of Amable Auroy. 

3. Title to A Paris as in No. 1. A Roman q. in Apostolique. Chez 
-Amable Auroy, riie Saint 1 Saint Jacques a ITmage S. Jerome, | attenant 
la Fontaine S. Severin. | M. DC. L. XXXVIII | Avec Privilege dv Roy. | 

12mo, pages as is No. 1. After privilege " Acheve d'imprimer pour la 
^seconde fois, le 10. Mars 1688. De ITmprimerie de Laurent Rondet." Same 
map. 

• In this I received valuable aid from Dr. George H. Moore, Hon. John E. Bart- 
lett, and Mr. Sabin'a Dictionary. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 383 



Italian. 

4. Descrizione 1 1 della | Lvigiaua ; | Paese nuovamente scoperto nel- | 
1' America Settentrionale, | sotto gl'auspicij | del Christianissimo | Lvigi 
XIV. I Con la Carta Geografica del mede | simo, Costumi, e manicre di 
I viuere di que' Saluaggi. | Del P. Lvigi Hennepin | Fraucescano Recol- 
letto, e Missionario | Apostolico in questa Scoperta. | Tradotta del 
Francese, e Dedicata | al Reverendiss. P. D. Ludovico | de' Conti Gverra | 
Abbate Casinense de S. Proculo | di Bologna. | In Bologna, per Giacomo 
Monti, 1686. | Con Licenza de' Superiori. 

12°, pp. 12, 396. Map. 

Page 2 coutains Vidit and Imprimatur. Then follows a Dedication 
by the translator Casimiro Freschot dated Jan. 21,1686. Bologna, 10 pp. 

Dutch. 

5. Engraved title. OntdekkUig van | Louisania | Door den Vader | 
L. Hennepin. | Benevens de Beschryving van Noord-America | door den 
Heer Denys. | t' Amsterdam by Jan ten Hoorn, 1688. 

Printed title. Beschryving | van | Louisania, | Nicwelijks ontdekt ten 
Zuid-Westen | van | Nieuw-Vrankryk, | Door order van den Koning. I 
Met de Kaart des Landts, en een nauwkeurige verhande- | ling van de 
Zeden en manieren van leeven der Wilden. ] Door den | Vader Lodevi^yk 
Hennepin, | Recolletsche Missionaris in die Gewesten, en | Apostolische 
Notaris. | Mitsgaders de | Geographische en Historische Beschrijving der 
Kusten | van | Noord America, | Met deNatuurlijkeHistoire des Landts. l 
Door den Heer Denys, | Gouverneur Lieutenant Generaal voor Zijn 
Allerchriste- | lijkste Majesteit, en Eigenaar van alle de Landen en Ei- I 
landen gelegen van Cap de Campseaux tot aan Cap des Roziers. ( 
VercjeirtmetKopereFiguren. 1 1' Amsterdam, | By Jan ten Hoorn, Boekver- 
kooper over 't Oude | Heeren Logement, in de Histori-Schryver. A, 1688 

4°. Engraved title, pp. (4), 158, (5), map, 6 plates, pp. (4), 200 (4). 

German. 

6. Beschreibung ( der Landschafft | Lovisiaua, | welche 'auf Befehl des: 
Konigs in Frank- | reich' neulich gegen Siidwesten | Neu-Frankreichs | 
in America | entdecket worden. J NebensteinerLand-Carten' | und Bericht.. 
von den Sitten und | Lebens-Art der Wilden in Sel- \ biger Landschafft. 1 
In Franzosischer Sprache heraus | gegeben | durch | P. Ludwig Henne- 
pin' Mission. Recoil. | und Notarium Apostolicum. | Nun aber ins Teutsche 
iibersetzet [ (ornament). Niirnberg' In Verlag Andreae Otto, 1689. I 



38+ 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 



12°, 425 pp, map. flennepiu ends on p. 352, then new title : Beschrei- 
bung I einer sonderbaren Reise | etiicher [ bisher noch unbekannter | 
Lander und Volcker | im Mitter-nachtigen America, | welche 1673 | durch 
P. Marquette, S. J. und Herrn Jolliet j verrichtet worden. | Aus dem 
Franzosischen ins Teutsche iibersetzet. Niirnberg, 1689. 

7. Same. Nurnberg : Andreas Otto, 1692, 18°, pp. 427, map. 

English. 

8. A I Description | of | Louisiana. | By Father Louis Hennepin | Re. 
collect Missionary. | Translated from the edition of 1683, and compared 
with the Nouvelle Decouverte, the La Salle documents, and other con- 
temporaneous papers. | By John Gilmary Shea. | New York. | John G. 
Shea. I 1880. 

8°, pp. 408, map, facsimile ot title of edition of 1683, view of Niagara 
from the Nouvelle Decouverte, 1697. 

IL THE " NOUVELLE DECOUVERTE." 
French. 

1. (Engraved title) Nouvelle Decouverte | d'un tres grand | Pays | Situe 
dansl'AmGrique | Par R. P. Lovisde Hennepin. | aUtrec | chez Guiliaume 
Broedelet. 

(Printed title) Nouvelle | Decouverte j d'un tres grand | Pays | Situe 
dans I'Amerique, | entre | Le Nouveau Mexique, | et | La Mer Glaciale, | 
Avec les Cartes, & les Figures necessaires, & de plus | I'Histoire Natur elle 
& Morale, & les avantages, | qu'ou en pent tirer par I'etablissement dea 
Colonies. | Le tout dedie ( a | Sa Majeste Britannique. | Guiliaume III. I 
Par le | R. P. Louis Hennepin, | Missionaire Recollect & Notaire Aposto- 
lique. I A Utrecht, | — [ Chez Guiliaume Broedelet, | Marchand Libraire. 
MDOXCVII. 

12°, pp. (70) 1-312, 10 pp. marked 313,* 313-506. 2 maps, plate of 
Niagara Falls, p 44 and of Bison. 

This work begics with Epistre Dedicatoire 23 pp., Avis an Lecteur, 26 
pp., giving details as to his trials and diflficulties. Table de Chapitres, 19 
pp. The text begins with some general remarks, and biographical details, 
and then follows the Description de la Louisiane, expanding it, to p. 200 
when it copies from Le Clercq's Etablissment de laFoi, p. 153. From p. 249 
to 312 is an account of a pretended voyage down the Mississippi. The 
star pages and most of the remainder are from the Description de la 



THE "NOUVELLE DfiCOUVERTE." 385 

Louisiane enlarged. From 813 to end is in different type from preceding 
portion, the claapter heads have arable figures, while in the earlier part 
they have Roman numerals, the head lines differ, being nouvell decouv. 
before 313 and Xouvel. Decouv. , after 313. The spacing is also difierent, 
all tending to show that it was set in another office and by other hands. 
The introduction of star pages shows that the succeeding portion was 
printed first. The type on last page is smaller than the body of the work. 
The work has been rewritten by some literary man, not versed in Canadian 
affairs or Catholic terms. The Moeurs des Sauvages is omitted. Whether 
all from 249 to the last 313 * was inserted after the work was printed in its 
original form is a question on which Hennepin's credit depends. 

The map continues the Mississippi to the gulf, calls the Missouri. R. 
Oteuta, puts the Chiquacha on the R. Tamaroa below it, the Akansa on a 
R" Ouma, and to two rivers below on the west absurdly gives the names 
Hiens and Sablonniere taken from La Salle's last voyage It omits the 
tree with tlie French arms. 

2, Nouvelle | Decouverte | d'un tres grand | Pays | Bitue dans I'Amerique | 
entre | Le Nouveau Mexique, | et la Mer Glacialc, | Avec lee Cartes, et les 
Figures necessaires, et de plus | I'Histoire Naturelie et Morale, et lesavan- 
tages I qu'on en pent tirer par I'etablissement des Colonies |Le toutdedie \ 
a sa Majeste Britannique, [ Guillaume III | par le R. P. Louis Hennepin | 
Missiouaire Recollect & Notaire Apostolique. | A. Amsterdam, Chez 
Abraham van Someren. MDCXCVIII. 

12°, pp. (70) 506 Engraved title, 10 star pages 313 as before, 2 maps 
2 plates. This edition corresponds page for page with tlie edition of 1697 
including the star pages to p. 5C0, but is uniformly printed as regards head- 
ings. After that a little is gained on each page to bring it all in on p. 
506 in the same type. 

3 Voyage | ou Nouvelle Decouverte | d'un tres grand pays, |'d;„n | 
I'Amerique, | entre le Nouveau | Mexique | et la Mer Glacialc, | Par le R. 
P. Louis Hennepin, | Avec toutes les particularitez de ce Pais, & de celui 
connu sous le nom de La Louisiane; | les avantages qu' on en pent tirer 
par I I'etablissement des Colonies | enrichie de Cartes Geographiques. | 
Augmente do quelques figures en taille douce. | Avec" un | voyage | Qui 
contient une Relation exacte de I'Origine, Sloeurs, | Coutumes, Religion, 
Guerres & Voyages des Caraibes, | Sauvages des Isles Antilles de I'Ame- 
rique, I Faite par le Sieur de la Borde, | Tiree du Cabinet de Monsr. 
Blonde]. | A. Amsterdam, Chez Adriaan Braakman. MDCCIV. 
29 



386 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 



13", pp. (34) 604, (32). 493 printed 293. 2 maps, engraved title, 6 plates 
Niagara, Bison, the Building of the Griffln, Indians alarmed at a Mon- 
strance, the Buffalo country, and Hennepin's companions taking goods 
from the cache. 

Hennepin's voyage ends on p. 516. 

4 Vo^'^age Curieux | Du R. P. Louis Hennepin, | Missionnaire Recollect 
& Notaire Apostolique, | Qui contient une ( Nouvelle Decouverte | 
I D'un Tres-Grand Pays ( Situe dans 1' Amerique, | Entre le Nouveau 
Mexique & la Mer Glaciale, | Avec | Toutes les particularitez de ce Pays, 
& les avantages qu' on | en pent tirer par I'etablissement des Colonies, 
enrichi | de Cartes & augmente de quolques figures | en taille douce ne- 
cessaires. | Outre cela on a aussi ajoute ici un | Voyage | Qui contient une 
Relation exacie de 1' origiue, Mceurs, Coutumes, Religion, Guerres & 
Voyages | Des Caraibes, | Sauvages | des Isles Antilles del' Amerique, | 
Faite par le csieur de la Borde, | Employe a la Conversion des Caraibes, | 
et tiree du Cabinet de Mr. Blondel. A La Haye, | Chez Jean Kittp, 
Marchand Libraire, dans | le Spuy-Straet. | 1704. 

12°, Engraved title, pp (32) 604 (32) 2 maps, 6 plates, same misprint of 
293 for 493. 

5. Same A Leide, 1 Chez Pierre Van der Aa, 1704. 

6. Voyages | Curieux et Nouveaux | de Messieurs | Hennepin & De la 
Borde, | Oal' on voit | line Description tres Particuliere, d'un Grand Pays 
dans r Amerique, entre le | Nouvcau Mexique, & la Mer Glaciale, avec 
une Relation Curieuse des | Caraibes Sauvages des Isles Antilles de 1' 
Amerique, | leurs Mceurs. Coutumes, Religion &c. | Le tout accompagne 
des Cartes & figures necessaires. | A Amsterdam, Aux depens de la Com- 
pagnie, MDCXI. ! 

Same as preceding, but vrith title printed oblong and folded iu. Same 
misprint of 293 for 493. 

7. Voyage | on Nouvelle Decouverte d'un tres | grand Pais, dans 1' 
Amerique, | entre le Nouveau Mexique | et la | Mer Glaciale. | 

. . . Augmente de quelques figures en taille douce | avec un voyage 
I qui contient une relation exacte de 1' Origine, Mceurs, Contumes, Reli- 
gion, Guerres et Voyages des Caraibes, | Sauvages des Isles Antilles de 1' 
Amerique. Faite par le Sieur de la Borde. Amsterdam. Jacques Des- 
bordes, 1712. 



THE "NOUVELLE DfiCOUVERTE." 387 

12°, Engraved title. Title, dedication (11) avis au lecteur (13) Table (9) 
604 pp Table de niatieres (30). Map, 6 plates. 

8. Decoiiverte | d'un Paj^s | pins grand qne | I'Enrope, | situe' dans | L' 
Ameriqne | entre le | ISTouveau Mexique & la Mer Glaciale. | printed in 
Recueil de Voiages au Nord, Tome Neuvieme. A Amsterdam Chez Jean 
Frederic Bernard, MDCCXXXVII. 

12°, pp (2) 464 (10). Map. 

Dutch. 

9. JSTieuwe Ontdekkinge ( Van eeu groot Land, gelegen in | America 
I tusschen nieuw Mexico | en de Ys-Zee. ( Behelzende de gelegentheid der 
zelve nieuwe ontdekte Landen : de Rivieren enlgroote Meertsn in't 
zelve. Eu voor al van de groole Rivier Meschasipi genaamd. | De 
Kolonien die men by de zelve tot voor deel van dozen Staat, zo ten 
opzich I te van den Koophandel, als tot verzekeringe der Spaansche 
Goud-Mijneu, zou konnen oin-echten. De uitneemendti vruclitbaar- 
heid van't Land ; over- | viced der Visscheu in den Rivieren. De ge- 
daanten, inborst, geloove en oeffe- | nuigen der Wildeii aldaar woonende 
De vreemde Dieren in liaare Rosscheu en | velden. Met een Korte aan- 
merkinge oevr de 20 genaamde Straat Aniam ; en | 't middel om door een 
kotteweg, zonder de Linie ^quinoctiaal te passeeren, | na China en 
Japan te komen met veele curieuse dingen meer. Alles met goede | 
Kaarten tot dezc aanwijzinge nodig, en met Kopere Plaaten vercierd" 
met goed-vindinge van den | Koning van Engeland. | Wilhelmus 
deen III. | In't licht gegeeven : | En aan de Zelve zijne Majesteit opge- 
draagen door | L(?dew3^k Hennepin, | Missionaris Recollect en Notaris 
Apostoliek. | Tot Amsterdam, | By Abraham van Someren. 1699. | 

4° pp (26), 220, (14). 2 maps, 2 plates. 

10. Nieuwe Ontdekking | van een Groot Land, gelegen in j America, | 
Tusschen Nieuw | Mexico en de Ys-Zee. | Behelzende de gelegenheid 
der zelve nieuw ontdekte Landen, | de Rivieren en groote Meeren, en 
voor al de groote Rivieren Meschasipi ge- | naamd : | de Colonien die men 
by de zelve tot voordeel van dezen Staat, | zo ten opzichte van den 
Koophandel, als tot verzekeringe der Spaan- | sche Goud-Mijnen, zon 
konnen oprechten ; , . . . Benevens een Aanhangsel, behelzende een 
Reize door een | gedeelte van de Spaansche West-Indien, en een Verhaal | 
van d'Expiditie der Franscheu op Cartagena. | Door L. de C, j Tot 
Amsterdam, | By Andries van Damme, Boekverkooper , . . 1702. 1 



388 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 



4° engraved title, pp. (24) 220. (14) 2 maps, 2 plates. 2dcI part, pp. 47, 
map, plate. 
Ta 11. Aenmerkelyke Voyagie | Gecl^.an na't | Ged'-3lte van Noorder 
Ameilca, | Belielz.ade een nieuwe ontdekkinge van een seer | Groot 
Land, gelegen tusschen ! Nieuw Mexico en de Ys-Zee. | Vei /attende de 
gelegentheid der zelve nieuw ontdekte Lan- 1 den ; de Revieien en groote 
Meeren in't zelve. | En voor al van de groote Revier Meschasipi genaamd- 
Die Kolonien die men by de zelve tot voordeel van dezen Staat, zo ten 
opzichte van den | Koopliandel, als tot verzekeringe der Spaansche 
Goud Mijntn | zou konnen oprecbten. De uitnemende vruchtbaarheid 
van't I Land ; overvloed der Visscben in die Rivieren. De gedaanten, | 
inborst, geloove en | oefTeningen der Wilden aldaar woonende. | De 
vreemde Diereu in Haare Boescben en Velden. Met een | korle aanmer- 
kin"-e over de zogenaamde Straat Aniam; en't | middel om door een 
korte weg, zonder der Linie JSquinoctiaal | te passeeren, na Cbina en 
Japan te komen met vcele an dereby | sonderbedeu meer. Door Lode- 
wyk Hennepin, | Mis^ionaris Recollect en Kotaris Apostoliek. | Desen 
laasten Druk is niet alleen vercjierd, metnoodige Kaarten | maar ook met 
verscbede Kopere Printverbeeldingen, | noyt te vooren soogesien. | Te 
Leyden, | By Pieter van der Aa, 1704. | 

4°, PP- (32), 219, (13), 2 maps, 6 plates : Niagara, Buffalo, Building of 
Griffin, Indians alarmed at Monstrance, Buffalo country. At tbe Cacbe. 

^ 12. Aanmerkelyke voyagie ] gedaan na't | gedeelde van | Noorder 

America, 1 bebelzende een nieuwe ontdekkinge van een seer | groot 
Land, gelegen tuscben | Nieuw Mexico en de Ys-Zee, | &c. Te Rotterdam, 
By Barent Bos, 1704. | 

4°, pp. 22, (219,) 13. 2 maps, 6 plates. 

A 13. De Gedeukwaardige | We-.t-Indise Voyagien, | Gedaan door | 

Cbristoffel Columbus, | Americus Vesputius, | en | Lodewijck Hennepin. | 
Bebelzende een naaukeurige en waaracbtige Bescbrijving | der eerste en 
laatste | Americaanse ontdekkingen, | Door de voornoemde Reizigers 
gedaen, met alle de | byzondere voorvallen, bet overgekomen. | Mits- 
gaders een | Getrouw en aenmaerkelyk Verbaal, &c. Te Leyden | By 
Sti.'^^c -Pieter van der Aa. 1704. | 
-*\ >" 4°, pp. 22 (219,) 13. 2 maps, 6 plates. 

,14. Nieuwe Ontdekkinge, van groote Lande in Amerika, tusscben 



THE "NOUVEAU VOYAGE." 3 89 

^ieuw-Mexlco en de Ys-Zee Bsnevens een Aaiihangsel, be- 

-helzende een Reize door een gedeelte van de Spaansch West Indian door 
L. de C. Amsterdam 1722. 

Gekman. 

15. Neue | Entdeckung | vielei eshr grossenLandschafften | in | America 
zwischen Neu-Mexico iind dem Eyss-Meer gelegen .... log Teutsclie 
iibersetzt durch | M. J. G. Langen | Mit L :nd-Chartea and Kupffer 
Figuren. Bremen : Philip Gottfr. Saurmans 1699. 

12° pp. (63), 383. Engraved frontispiece, map and two plates. 

16. Neue | Reise | Beschreibung | nac'ae | Araeiica, | und derer | bisher 
noch unbekandten Lan- | der und Volcker, | v-Tcnemlich | von der Land- 
schafft I Lovisiana, | und den Sitten und Lebens Art der Wil- | den in 
selbiger LandschafFt. | Aus dera Franzosisclien iiber- | setzt und mit 
Kupfern geziert. | Niirnberg. 1739. | Im Verlag Christ. Fried Feisze. 

18°, pp. 425. 2 maps 

ABRIDGEMENTS. 
Spaisish. 

1. Relacion | de uu pais | que nuevamente se ha descu- | bierto ] en la | 
America | Septentrional | de mas estendido que es | la Europa. | Y que 
saca a luz en Castellano, debajo de la pro- j teccion de el Exmo Sr. 
Duque de el Int'antado, | Pastrana, &c. , el Sargente General de Batalla 1 
Don Sebastian Fernandez de Me- | drano. Director de la Academia Rea| 
y I Militar de el Exercito de los Paises Bajos. | En Brusselas, | En casa de 
Lamberto Marchant, | MDC,XCIX. | 

1-2°, pp. (8) 86, map, 2 plates. 

English. 

2. A Discovery of a Large, Rich and Plentiful | Country | in the | North 
America; | Extending above 4000 Leagues. | Wherein, | By a very short 
Passage, | lately found | out, thro' the Mer-Barmejo into the South- | Sea ; 
by which a considerable Trade might | be carry'd on, as well in the 
Northern as | the Southern Parts of America. | London : Printed for W. 
Boreham, at the Angel in Pater-Noster Row. | [17^0. ] 8°, pp. (2) 22. 

III. THE " NOUVEAU VOYAGE." 

French. 
1. Nouveau | Voyage | d'un Pais plus grand que | I'Europe. | Avec les 
reflections des entreprises du Sieur | de la Salle sur les mines de Ste 



390 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 



Barbe, &c. | EnricM de la Carte, de figures expressives, des moeurs, | & 
manieres de vivre des Sauvagea du Nord, | & du Sud, de la prise de 
Quebec, Ville Capital- | le de la Nouvelle France, par les Anglois, & 
des I avantages qu'on peut retirer du chemin racourci | de la Chine & du 
Japon, par le moien de tant ] de Vastes Contrees & de Nouvelles Colonies. | 
Avec approbation & dedie a sa Majeste | Guillaume III. | Roy de la 
Grande ] Bretagne | par le| R. P. Louis Hennepin, | Missionnaire Re- 
collect & Notaire Apostolique. |'A Utrecbt 1 Chez Antoine Schouten, | 
Marchand Libraire, 1698* | 
8', pp. (70) (2) 389, 4 plates, 1 map. 

3-3. Voyage | en an Pays plus grand | que | I'Europe, | Entre la Mer 
Glaciale & le Nouveau | Mexique. | Par le | P. Hennepin, | printed in 
Recueil | de Voyages | au Nord, | contenant 1 Divers Memoires trea 
utiles au ] Commerce & a la | Navigation. | Tome V. | Troisieme 
Edition | augmentee d'une Relation. | A Amsterdam, | Chez Jean Frederic 
Bernard. | MDCCXXXIV. | 

12°, pp. 197-370. 

Also one called second edition, 1720. 

The first edition of the Voyages au Nord in four volumes 1715-9, 
did not include Hennepin at all. 

The second edition gave the Nouveau Voyage ; the third edition, 10 vols., 
the Nouveau Voyage in Vol. V, and the Nouvelle Decouverte in Vol. IX. 

Dutch. 

4 (Engraved title) Reyse | door | Nieuwe Ondekte | Landen | (Printed 
title) Aenmerckelycke | Historische | Reijs Beschryvinge ) Door verscheyde 
Landen veel grooter als die van gelieel | EvrojDa | onlanghs ontdeckt. | Be- 
helsende eeu nauwkeurige Beschrijviuge van gelegentheyd, natuur, en | 
vrughtbaerheyd, van't Zuyder, en Noorder gedeelte van America ; mits- 
gaders | de gedaente, aerd, manieren, Idedingen, en't geloove der talrijke 
Wilde Natien, de Hoof tstad van Cana | da, door de Englischen. De geivig- 
tige aenmerkingeu op de ouderneminge van de Heer de la Salle, op de 
Goud-Mljiien van St. Barbara, met veel meerandere | waeragtige ea selsd- 
same geschiedenissen. En in't besonder de aenwijsingen om | door een 
korten wegh sender de Linie Equinoctiael te passeereu, na Chiua en | Japan 
te komeu ; en de groote voordeelen die men hier door, als mede door de ] 
nieuwe Volckplantigen in dese vrughtbaare Landen sou konnen trecken. 
Alles I met een netteKaert tot dese \ aenwijsinge uodig, en kopere Platen 



'NEW DISCOVERY, ETC." 39 I 

Terciert. / Met Approbatie van ) Willi elmus den III. | Komnugh ( van | 
Groot-Britanie. | En aau deselve sijne Majesteyt opgedragen | door | 
Lodewyck Hennepin, | Missionaris Recollect, en Notaris Apostolick. | 
Tot Utrecht, | By Anthony Schouten. | 1698. 

4°, pp. (28) 143, last page misprinted 342, (18). 

Map "Carte d'un Noiiveau Monde entre le Nouveau Mexique et la Mer 
Glaciale. Gasp. Bouttats fecit." 

Gekman. 

5 Nene j Keise Beschreibung | durch viele Lander weit grosser als 
^antz Europa | .... durch L. , Hennepin. | Bremen : Phil. Gottfr. 
Saurmans, 1698.| 

8°, pp. (64) 288, 4 plates. 

6 Reisen j und sclisehme | Begebenheiten ; Oder sonderbare Enuieckung 
vieler sehr grossen | Lander | in A.merika. Welche biszhero noch unbe- 
kannt | gewesen, und an Grcisse gantzEuro- | pa iibertreffen, &c., Bre- 
men : Nathaniel Saurmaun, 1742. | 

18°, pp. (24) 382, 2 maps, 2 plates. 

THE "NOUVELLE DECOUVERTE " AND "NOUVEAU VOYAGE" 

TOGETHER. 

English. 
1. A I New Discovery | of a | Vast Country in America, | extending above 
Four Thousand Miles, | between | New France and New Mexico ; | with 
a I Description of the Great Lakes, Oata- | racts. Rivers, Plants, and 
Animals. | Also, the Manners,' Customs and Languages of the se- 1 veral 
native Indians ; and the advantage of Com- | merce with those differen 
Nations, j With a | Continuation, | Giving an Account of the | Attempts 
of the Sieur de la Salle upon the | Mines of St. Barbe, &c. The Taking 
of Quebec by the English ; With the Advantages | of a Shorter Cut to 
China and Japan. | Both parts illustrated with Maps, and Figures, j and 
Dedicated to His Majesty K. William. | By L. Hennepin, now Resident 
in Holland. | To which are added, Several New Discoveries in North- I 
America not publish'd in the French Edition. | London, Printed for 
M. Bentley, J. Tonson, | H. Bonwick, | T. Goodwin, and S. Manship 
1698. I 



392 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 



,^ 8% Engraved title, pp. (20) 2il9; pp. (32), 178 (2), 301-£55. 2 maps,. 
7 plates. 

This is evidently tlie^first Englisb edition. The 299 pages of Part I 
contain a translation of the tKcuvelle Decouverte, and supplementary- 
matter embracing Marquette's voyage was printed in the same time and. 
foiled 301-355, 300 being blank. Then apparently, it was resolved to 
translate also the NomeauYoyagc, and this was printed in smaller type as 
Part II, making 178 pages with a catch word on last page, and iu binding 
up the work, 'the [supplemental poilion of Part I was placed after this 
without regard to folios. 

5 2. Same Title, but H. Bon- in imprint on tlie;first line. 

8°, Engraved title, title, pp. (20) 243 (32), 228. 2 maps, ^ plates. 

It is not a reprint of No. 1. 

There are|slight[alteratiouB on Part I, but Part II is entirely rewritten 
and improved. %_ This lari in the first edition begins " Men ought to be 
satisfy'd " : but in this one " Reason ought to rule " : and in this edition 
two chapters are numbered|XXII. 

3. Same title as ISo. 1. otherwise apparently as Ko. 2 but without the 
error in chapter XXII. 

4. A I Kew Disco\cry | of a | Vast Countiy in America; | Extending 
over Four Thousand Miles, | between | New France & New Mexico ;| with 
a I Description of the JGreat Lakes, Cataracts, | Rivers, Plants, and Ani- 
mals. I Also, the Manners, Customs, and Languages of the several ' 
Native Indians ; | And the Advantage of Commerce with | those diflFerent 
Nations. | With a | Continuation | Giving an Account of the | Attempts 
of the Sieur de la Salle upon :he 1 Mines of St. Barbe, &c. The Taking 
of Quebec | by the English ; \Mih the Advantages of a | shorter Cut to 
China and Japan. Botli Illustrated with Maps, and Figures ; and Dedi- 
cat( d I to his Majesty King Wilham. | By L. Hennepin now Resident 
in Holland. | To which are added. Several New Discoveries in North- 1 
America, not ^Publish 'd In the French Edition. | London, Printed for 
Henry Bonwicke, at the Red Lion | in St. Paul's Church Yard, 1699. | 

8°, Engraved title, pp. (20) 240, pp. (24) 216. 2 maps, 6 plates. 
Reprint of No 2. 



INDEX. 
A 

Abenakis, 375. 

Accault, Michael, 360-1, 368, see Ako, Dacan. 

Account of a Voyage down the Mississippi, from the " Nou- 

velle Decouverte," 343. 
Account of Hennepin and the Sioux, 360. 
Affaire Roland, 64. 
Agniers (Mohawks), 23. 
Agrenlpoualacs, 374. 
Aiounouea, 370. 
Akansa, 186, 347-8, 356-7. 

Ako, Michael, 190, 225, 241-2, 250-r, 353, 360, 368. 
Allart, Rev. Germain, 62. 
Allouez, Father Claude, 164. 
Andris (Andros), Major, 23. 
Anian, Aniam, strait of, 237. 

Aquipaguetin, chief, 21 1, 215-6, 219, 225-8, 248. 
Arpentigny, 63. 
Artois, 12. 
Assenipoits, 373; Assenipovalacs, 236; Assinlpoulak, 36 r, 

374- 
Ath, 9. 

Atreouati, (Grande Gueule), 308, 310. 
Auguelle, Anthony, nicknamed Le Picard du Guny, 188, 191, 

225, 235, 361, j^^Picard. 

B 

Bailkquct, Father, 377. 



394- INDEX. 

Bay of the Puants (Green Bry), 104, 119, 201, 258 269, 

361, 367- 
Belmont, Abbe, 32. 
Benton Harbor, 131. 
Bernou, Abbe, 37, 372. 
Bison, 143. 

Black River, 197, 365. 
Blaithwayt, 27. 
Bois d' Ardenne, 269. 
Bourg Royal, 21. 
Brassart, Anthony, 77. 
Brisset, F. Luke, 271. 
Broedelet, William, 29. 
Bruyas, F. James, 24, 25, 285. 
Buffalo River, 198, 251, 365. 
Buisset, F. Luke, 59, 88, 63, 264, 271. 
Buttes, The, 97. 

c 

Calais, 1 1. 
Calumet, 112. 
Cap de St. Antoinc, 357, 
Cap Enrage, 81. 
Cap Tourmente, 21. 
Casquin, 163. 
Castorie, 365. 
Cayuga Creek, 82. 
Chaa Indians, 189. 
Chabadeba, Chabaoudeba, 197, 365 
Charlevoix, Father, 34. 
Charon, Sieur, 88. 



INDEX. 395 



Charpentier, Thomas, 69. 
Chassagouasse, Chief, 166. 
Chikacha, 346, 357, see 163, 186. 
Chinnien, 226. 
Chongaskabes, 373. 
Chongaskethon (Sisitonwan), 203. 
Cicaca, 163 ,- Ciccaca, 186. 



D 



Dacan, M., 372, see Accault. 

Dakota language, 45, 45*. 

Dalera, M., 367. 

Daminoia, 163. 

d' Auteuil, M., 366. 

d' Autray, Sieur, 135. 

de Barrois, Mr., 18. 

de Belizani, Mr., 56. 

de Cauroy, 235. 

de Courcelles, Gov., 52-3. 

de Coxis, Mr., 28. 

de Groseilliers, Sieur, 362. 

de Lassay, Marquis, 374. 

de la Ribourde, Father Gabriel, 10, 43, 55, 63, 89, iii, 117, 

122, 133, 140, 155, 177, 187, 189, 267, 269. 
Description of Louisiana, 41 ; BibHography of, 382. 
de Tonty, Chevalier, 61, 87, 103, 133, 135, 188, 267. 
Detroit, 91. 

Dollier de Casson, Rev., 52, 60. 
Du Guay, the Picard, 224, 353, 356, see Auguelle. 
du L'hut (Lude, Luth), 253, 255, 261, 365. Memoir of, 373. 
Dunkirk, 11. 



396 INDEX. 



Enjalran, Father, 377. 
Espiritu Santo Bay, 352. 



Faffart, 361, 366. 

Falls of St. Anthony, 197, 200. 220. 241-4, 35S-9. 

Fillatre, Father Luke, 265. 

Fort Chambly, 53. 

Fort Champlain, 270. 

Fort Crevecoeur, 175-6, 184, 194, 266, 349-50, 359, 361. 

Fort de Conty, (Niagara), 74, 106, 262, 324. 

Fort Frontenac, 43, 53-4, 106, 264, 266, 363, 366. 

Fort of the Miamis, 131. 

Fort Sorel, 53. 

Frontenac, Count de, 54-5, 57, 73, 264, 270, 335. 

G 

Galinee, Abbe, 52, 60. 
Gannlekez or Agniez (Mohawks), 23. 
Ganniessinga Indians, 80. 
Garakonthie, Chief, 307. 
Garnier, Father Julian, 76-7. 
Gastacha (Mississippi), 361. 
Goiogoins (Cayugas), 307. 
Grande Gueule, 308. 
Great Rock, 69, 72, 89. 
Green Bay, 258, see Puants. 

Griffin, first vessel on Lake Erie, commenced, 74 ; question as 
to place where builr, 82; named 85, 89; enters Lake Erie, 



INDEX. 3 97 

9 I J at Mackinac, 97, 104. ; at Green i3.iy, 104 ; sent back to 
Niagara, 105; lost, 107. 

H 

Halle, Hennepin at, ii. 

Hanetons, 373. 

Harpentinie, see Arpentlgny. 

Hcmpin, Father, 371. 

Hennepin, Father Louis, Notice of, 9 ; birth, 9; becomes a 
Recollect friar, travels, 10; army chaplain, 13, 124; at 
Battle of SenefF, 13 ; sent to Canada, 14 ; trouble on voyage 
with La Salle, 17 ; first mission labors, 20-1 ; visits Mo- 
hawks, 22 ; builds Mission house at Fort Frontenac, 59 ; 
selected to go with La Salle, 62 ; dines with Frontenac, 63 ; 
visits L-oquois cantons, 64 ; leaves Fort Frontenac, 64 ; 
enters Niagara, ib; says mass near Falls, ib ; visits Senecas, 
76 ; at Fort Frontenac, 83 ; returns to Niagara, 89 ; on 
Lake Michigan, iii ; in affair with the Foxes, 122 ; erects 
bark cabin as a chapel on Benton Harbor, 133 ; at Fort 
Crevecosur, 177 ; sent by La Salle to upper Mississippi, 
188; reluctance, 189; sets out, 192; captured by Sioux, 
205 ; had some idea of descending the Mississippi, 212 ; at 
Falls of St. Anthony, 220 ; begins Dakota Dictionary, 229 ; 
found by du Lhut, 253 ; returns, 256 ; at Fort Frontenac, 
265 ; returns to France, 25 ; at St. Germain-en-Laye, ib ; 
at Chateau Cambresis, 26; at Renti, ib ; at Gosselies, 27 ; 
at Antwerp, 28 ; Amsterdam, 29 ; Utrecht, 29 ; his Nou- 
vclle Decouverte published, 29 ; forbidden to return to 
Canada, 30 ; at Rome, ib ; examination of his veracity, 31 ; 
testimonies in his favor, 32, 43* ; impeached, 33, 35; voyage 
down the Mississippi from the Nouvelle Decouverte, 343 ; 



398 INDEX. 

account of voyage up from Margry, 360 ; from Tonty, 372; 

Du L'hut's memoir, 374; account of Niagara Falls, 377 ; 

letter of, to Renaudot, 372 ; bibliography of, 382. 
Herinx, Rt. Rev. William, bishop of Iprcs, opposes Hennepin, 

II. 
Hillaret, Moyse, 191. 
Hohio (Ohio), 51. 
Honnehioats (Oneidas), 23. 
Honnontaguz (Onondagas), 21. 
Humber, 64. 
Hunaut, 103. 
Huron Isles, 107. 
Hurons, 100, 260, 276, 315, 358. 
Hontouagaha, 80. 
Houetbatons, 374. 

I 

Ikoueta, 369. 

Indians, manners of the, 273 ; fertility of country, ib ; origin 
of, 277 ; physical condition, 280 ; dress, 287 j marriages, 
290 ; feasts, 297 ; games, 300 ; rudeness, 304 ; courtesy, 
306; cruelty, 311; policy, 316; hunting, 318; fishing, 
323 ; utensils, 325 ; burial, 327 ; superstitions, 328 ; ridi- 
culous beliefs, obstacles to conversion of, indifference, 335; 337 

Illinois, 361, 371, see Islinois. 

Illinois river, 141, 361. 

Iroquois, 57, 164, 186, 262, 266, 268, 315. 

Islati (Issati), 197. 

Islinois (Illinois), 60, 130, 152-3,155, 168, 186,205, 242, 
259> 266> 343> 352, 359j 3H 373- 



INDEX. 3CJ9 



Issati, 201, 203, 236, 256, 314, 373, 37 
Isle of St. Laurent, 21. 
Izatys, 374. 



Joliet, Louis, 60, 358. 



J 



K 



Kakaling, 364. 

Kankakee river, 136, 141. 

Keroas, 339. 

Kickapoos, 269 ; Kikapous, 258, 269-70, 371, 

Koroa, 339, 349, 350, 354-5. 

L 

La Chine, 52, 310, 

Lake Buade or Issati (Mille Lake), 201-2, 373-4. 

Lake Conde or Tracy (Superior), 69, 70, 98, 199, 202. 

Lake Conty, Comty, or Erie (Erie), 52, 69, 71, B3-4, 89-91, 

261-2, 363, 377. 
Lake Dauphin, or Islinois (Michigan), 69 ; described, 70 ; 

La Salle on, 104, 118. 
Lake Frontenac (Ontario), 52, 57, 262, 264, 276, 324. 
Lake Huron, 69. 
Lake Michigan, 69. 
Lake of the Issati, 368. 
Lake of Tears (Pepin), 198, 217. 
Lake Ontario or Frontenac, 57, 70, 276. 
Lake Orleans, or of the Hurons (Huron), 69, 70, 91, 260-1. 
Lake St. Clare, 92, 261. 



4CO 



INDEX. 



Lake Superior, called Conde, 69, 365, 366, 374. 

Lake Tracy, 69. 

La Motte, Sieur, 61, 64, 74. 

La Rousseliere, 103. 

La Salle, Rene Cavelier, Sieur de, projects discoveries by ihc 
other route, 51; acquires establishment at Lachine, 52; 
encouraged by de Courcelles, 52 ; sets out vviih Dolier and 
Galinee, falls sick, ib ; solicits command of Fort Frontcnac, 

55 ; governor of Fort Frontenac, 15, 43, 56 ; rebuilds fort, 

56 ; returns to France, 60 ; obtains commission and exclu- 
sive privilege, 61 ; sails with Hennepin, 15; trouble vv^ith, 
17 ; at Fort Frontenac, 63; wrecked on his way to Niagara^ 
81; returns to Frontenac, 83; at Niagara,, 89; sails in 
Griffin, 90 ; at Mackinac, 97; at Green Bay, 104; sends 
back Griffin, 105 ; proceeds in canoes, 108 ; meets Pottawa- 
tamies, 115; trouble with Foxes, 119; builds fort of the 
Miamis, 131 ; ascends river of the IVIiamis, 135 ; lost, 137 ; 
reaches Illinois village, 152; at Illinois camp, 156; Monso 
prejudices Illinois against, 164; deserted by men, 172;. begins 
Fort Crevecoeur, 175 ; begins a bark, 178 ; sets out for Fort 
PVontenac, 188 ; sends Hennepin to Mississippi, 188 ; reaches 
mouth of Mississippi, 338 ; extract from letter of, 361. 

Laval, Francis de, bishop of Petraea, and of Quebec, 15, 62, 

265. 
Le Barbier, 103. 

Le Fevre, Father Hyacinth, 26, 62, 124. 
Lc Fevre, Father Louis, 27. 
Le Maitre, Rev. James, 310. 
Le Roux, Rev. Valentine, 62, 268. 
Le Talon, 261. 
Lewiston, 69. 
Long Point, 91. 



INDEX, 40 r 

Loaibiana, 44, 149, 273, 295, 322, 325. 
Luke, pilot, 96, 107, 133. 
Luke, Father, 264, see Buisset. 

M 

Maestricht, 1 1. 

Pv^alquenech, Baron de, 28. 

Mamenisi, 235, 250. 

Manza Ouakange, 211. 

Marne, river, 141. 

Margry, Pierre, 35. 

Maroa, 358, 362 ; ALiroha, 205 ; see Tainaro.u 

Marquette, Father James, 258. 

Mascoutens, 140, 164, 258, 364, 369. 

Maskoutens Nadouesioux, 371. 

Matsigamea, 358. 

Membre, Father Zcnobiu^, 26, 89, 155, 157, 177, 1S7, 259, 

265, 267, 271. 
Meschasipi, 52, 60, 34.3-5, 350-3, 357-8, see Colbert. 
Meschetz, Odeba, 197, 364. 
Messenecqz (Outagamis), 243. 
Messorite, 344, 357. 
Meuse, river, 141, 153, 193. 

Miamis, 140, 143, 186, 205-6, 216, 258, 2&6, 270, 35S, 363. 
Miamis, river of the, 129, 131. 
Michelimakinac, 376. 
Mille Lake, 199. 
Minime, 103. 

Misconsin, 187; iMisconsing, 364. 
Missilimakinac, 97, 104, 133, 259, 260. 
Missisipi, 360 ; Mississipy, 361. 



402 INDEX. 

Missorites, 344. 
Mitchinchi, 225. 
Mohawks, 24, 324. 
Mohegans, 85, 276. 
Monso, Chief, 164, 170-1. 
Adontreal, 264. 

N 

Nachie (Natchez), 349. 

Nadouecioux, 374-5, Nadouesloux, 364 ; Nadonessiou, 203 ; 

Nadouessans, 203, 373 ; Nadouessious, 197, 236, 258, 360-1 ; 

Nadonessiouz, 257 ; Nadouessiouz, 256; Nadousiouz, 315; 

Nadoussions, 201 ; Nadoussions, 254 ; Nadousiouz, 315. 
Namur, 153, 193. 
Narrhetoba, Chief, 166, 169-70. 
Nemissakouat river, 199 ; Nemitsakouat, 366. 
New England, 276. 
New Jork, Jortz, 276, 324. 
New Mexico, 351. 
New Netherland, 23, 276. 
New Sweden, 276. 
New York, 23, 276, 324. 
Nez Persez, 276. 
Niagara river, 64, 89, 324, 363. 
Niagara Falls, 68; described, 71 ; deicription from Nouvclle 

Decouverte, 377. 
Nicanape, Chief, 166, 169-70. 
Nipissingue, 375. 
Nipissiriniens, 375. 
Nouvel, Father, 377. 



INDEX. 403 

Nuuvelle, Decouvcrtc, The, how made up, 46 ; matter from 
Le Clercq, 47* ; errors in, that Hennepin could not make, 
15, 16, 48*, 200, 201, 218, 265, 345, 346 ; prepared by an 
editor ignorant of Canada, 49* ; extract from, 343 ; biblio- 
graphy of, 382. 

Nouveau Voyage, The, 51*, bibliography of, 389. 

o 

Oiatinon (Weas), 140. 

Omaouha or Omoahoha or Oumahoula, chief, 165, 187, 

means Wolf, 187. 
Oneidas, 21. 
Onisconsin river, 197. 
Onnontaguez, 269. 
Onontio, Iroquois name for French governors of Canada, 77, 

127, 268. 
Onondagas, 21, 269, 317. 
Ononhouaroia, 317. 
Ontaonatz (Ottawas), 276. 
Ontario, 54. 

Onttaouactz (Ottawas), 52. 
Openagaux, 375. 
Osages, 186, 343. 
Otchimbi, 252. 

Otontenta, Outontanta, 196; Otoutantas, (Ottocs), 371. 
Otoutantas Paote, 364. 
Ottawas, 52, 97, 99, 260-2, 276, 361, 366. 
Oua, 373 ; Ouadebathon or River people (Wa.-pctonvv;iii), 203. 
Ouadebache, 345. 
Ouakanche, 209. 
Ouamats, 339. 
Ouasicoude (Pierced Pine), chief, 234, 238, 240, 255. 



4-04 INDEX. 

Ouisconsin river, 237, 361; Ouisconsing, 366; Ouscousin, 

256-7 ; Oviscousin, 241, 248 (Wisconsin), 
Ounonhayenty, 302. 
Ounontaguez, 317. 
Outagamis (Foxes), 376; Outouagamis, 119, 126, 243, 257 

370> 376. 
Outaouacs, 366 ; Outaouas, 361 ; Outtaouats, 35S ; Outta- 
ouactz, 99, 261, 2; OuttacucLz, 260. 

P 

Palmas, 352. 

Payez, F. Rcnnere c'e, 28. 

Peoria, 175. 

Peoria Lake, 155. 

Picard, The, 240, 241, 243, 245-50, 252, 253, 2&1, see Au 

guelle. 
Pierced Pine (Ouasiconde), 257. 
Pierson, Father, 260, 377. 
Pimiteoui, Lake, 155, 262-3. 
Poerius, V. Rev. F., 28. 
Pointe de Levi, 21. 
Poupart, 103. 
Poutouatamis (Pottavvatamies), 104; chief devoted to Fron- 

tenac, 105; island of the, 108 ; second village, no. 
Puants (Winnibngocs), IC4, 258, 269, 361, 367.. 

Q 

Quappas, 186. 
Quebec, 363. 
Quinipissa, 350, 353. 

R 

Rafeix, Father, 74, 261. 



wwP^^ 



INDEX. 4.05 



Randin, Sieur, 366. 

Recollects, 14, 185. 

Red Sea (Gulf of California), 212. 

Relation des Decouvertes, 36-7, 42* 

Kichelieu river, 53. 

Rio Bravo, 352. 

Rio Escondido, 351. 

Rio de Panuco, 352. 

River Seignelay, 136, 192. 

River of the Issati (Rum), 201. 

Rochelle, 14, 55. 

Roy, 9. 



Sagard, Brother, 232. 

Saint Anthony of Padua, 96. 

Saint Croix, deserter, 103. 

Sainte Croix river, 199. 

Saint Francis river, 201, 241, 256. 

Saint Hour (Ours), 63. 

Saint Joseph's river, 131. 

Saint Lawrence river, 264, 276. 

Saint Louis river, 199. 

Sainte Anne, 21. 

Sakinam (Saginaw), 94. 

Sambre river, 141. 

Sauk, St. Marie, 98 ; Indians of, 10 1. 

Sauteurs, loi, 366. 

Seignelay (Illinois) river, 136, 141, 197, 257. 

Seine river, 362. 

Scnecas, 64, 73, 262. 



4-06 INDEX. 

SenefF, Hennepin at battle of, 13, Du Lhut at, 374. 
Sikacha (Chickasaw), 346, see Cicaca. 
Soto, Ferdinand, 163. 

T 

Taensa Indians, 348, 355. 

Talon, Sieur, 53. 

Tamaroa Indians, 193, 345, 362, see Maroa. 

Tangibao Indians, 351, 353. 

Tchatchakigoua Indians, 360, 369. 

Teakiki river, 361. 

Teganeout, 263. 

Tegarondies, 74. 

Teiaiagon, 64. 

Theakiki river (Kankakee), 136, 361, 362. 

Thinthonha (Titonwan) Indians, Tintonha, Nation of the 

Prairies, 90, 203, 357, 373 ; Tintonbas, 373. 
Three Rivers, 21. 
Thirty Mile Point, 81. 
Tomb River, 199, 202. 

Tonty, Chevalier de, 61, 87, 103, 133, 135, 18S, 267. 
Tracy, Marquis de, 53. 
Tsonnontouan (Senecas), 64, 73, 84. 
Tula, 163. 

u 

Utica, 153. 

V 

Virginia, 276. 

Voile, Father Alexander, 26. 



INDEX. 407 

w 

Watteau, F. Mclithon, at Niagara, 88, 90. 

Wazikute (Ouasiconde), 234. 

Wild rice, 201. 

William III. Hennepin presented to, 29 ; the Nouvelle De- 
couverte dedicated to, ib ; De Michel's remarks, 33. 

Wisconsin river, 197, 237, 241, 249, see Ouisconsin, Mis- 
cousin. 

Wolf Indians (Mohegans), 85, 276, 



ERROR. 

Page 384 line 13, for 408 read 407-16. 



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